Naruto: Relit
by HyperSuda
Summary: What is a bond? Is it the fruitless pursuit of acceptance or something that can change the ninja world? As he travels the complex and winding path of the shinobi, Naruto Uzumaki seeks to attain the knowledge he needs to answer this elusive question. (A full Naruto rewrite that includes rewritten characters, lore, abilities and world building. Canon-adjacent at first. Canon ships)
1. Enter: Naruto Uzumaki!

Blasts of red, a scorched skyline, buildings alight. The yellow flashes of hope that are blinking through the air are washed out completely by the crimson of the sky. A terrifying creature storms through the village, not as a force of nature, but vicious and sadistic in its actions.

A group of men and women wait patiently as the nearly inevitable doom comes rushing towards them. The man at the front of the pack is garbed in grey battle armor, despite his powerful stance, the threat in front of them makes him seem completely insignificant in the cosmic scale of things.

The large creature strikes, it's nine tails serving to impose itself even more over the shinobi at its feet. The claws of the Fox glimmer in the night, as the hand comes crashing down towards the group, intent to kill visible in its **shimmering red-tinted eyes, **only for the attack to be deflect, pulsating waves of chakra weaving through the air.

"Lord Hiruzen, we can't hold it for much longer!" A woman says, eyes clinching as she tries to divert her focus to keeping the barrier up, hands and legs resting on the ragged concrete surface of the building.

Her terror opened up a faucets worth of fearful speeches to come tumbling out of the small army that had amassed around Hiruzen.

"Lord Hiruzen, please, let us retreat!"

"Lord Hiruzen, where's the fourth?"

"Lord Hiruzen, be reasonable and run!"

"Just _hold__**!**_" Hiruzen yelled back, his angry tone doing little to break his steely concertation on the fox.

Speaking of which, the beasts paw slashes at the barrier once again, this time sending small, glass-like fragments of chakra flying off into the sky, refracting the hell storm skies. The beams of light dart through the forests and soar up to an overhanging hill, where they hit the sharp stone of something not quite visible in the nighttime daze.

"Wow, look look, it's **so** pretty!" A high-pitched voice screams out in sadistic pleasure, as he enjoys the light show that had come at the expense of hundreds of human lives.

The foxes claw comes crashing down again. This time it takes the barrier down, much to the man on the hills joy.

"What do we do Lord Hiruzen?!" A panicked voice yells out back on the building tops.

"I said **HOLD!**" Hiruzen yells back, as he prepares himself for the oncoming assault from the demon.

The boney body of the Kyubi lurches, pushing all its weight back against the dirt, before it leapt at the party below, flickers of black energy coursed into its mouth as it prepared to attack.

Hiruzen stood his ground, eyes only slanting more in concentration.

The fox's eyes on the other hand lit up in cruel glee, as it came crashing towards the group, the collective's hearts stopping as they saw the monster descending on them, having to make the snap realization that it may be the last thing they ever saw.

The Kyubi breathed in, eyes widening even more…

_**FWOOSH!**_

Dust sputtered up as a small boy rolled through the dirt laden streets of the village, his shadow casting waves over the sunlit pathways.

"Naruto Uzumaki, you have committed treason of the highest order, get back here at once!" An older man, clad in a green vest yelled out, doing nothing bar the bare-minimum to stop the boys escape.

Naruto darted around a corner, a mischievous smile plastered on his face, as he weaved through the streets of the village, the chunin chasing him hot on his tail.

Gradually getting closer to the sounds of cheers and chatter, he followed the scent, turning into what appeared to be a farmer's market, as small but colorful booths lined the streets.

Much to the dismay of everyone in attendance, Naruto ducked through the stalls, running on the counters and jumping from one to another, destroying some of the farmers wares in the process.

Realizing that his trailers would be entering the market-place now, the blonde threw himself towards the bottom of the next booth, sliding through the curtains that decorated its lower half, snatching a rice ball along the way (which caused an avalanche of words Naruto knew only adults could use to come bellowing out of the clerk)

Like a cat, Naruto pounced outwards, curtains blowing in his wake, as he left a collage of jam footprints over the dirt-way, almost giving his pursuers an essential paper trail to find him.

The sound of his feet tapping against the sidewalks, was quickly joined by two more, as the two older men began to gain on him.

"Naruto, stop!" One of them yelled to no avail, as Naruto just continued to run, making a beeline for a side-alley way. Realizing that this backstreet ended in a complete dead end, they smirked, kunais drawn, as they prepared to corner the boy.

With two completely unnecessary combat rolls, they burst out into concrete passage, pointing their knives at…

Absolutely nothing?

Instead of Naruto himself, the two were met with more jam stains coating the floor and walls, and a copious amount of broken piping strewn across the floor and to the side of the buildings making up the alley, the only reasonable explanation being that Naruto had sloppily made his way up onto the rooftops.

"Should we go after him?"

"Man, we don't get paid enough for this. We lost him, end of story."

The two lazily nodded their heads in agreement, and began to walk away, strolling through the proverbial walk of shame that would end with them creating some bullshit excuse as to why they couldn't catch a thirteen-year-old.

Meanwhile, the same rush of energy that had been prevalent through the streets started to slow down, as Naruto, smile still stained on his face, sat down on the edge of a building, admiring his Hokage rock was a famous monument, a hulking mountain of stone that had been chiseled with the faces of the four Hokage, making sure the ones who once ruled over the village could still do so through spirit.

Naruto had drawn penises, swirls, goatees and mustaches all over it.

"Haha, I got 'em good this time!" Naruto praised himself, pumping his fist in the air triumphantly.

"Got who?" The sudden appearance of a voice to his back sent Naruto screaming in terror, turning around to see-

"Iruka-sensei?! Don't be scaring me like that!" He said, voice slowly calming down as he realized he hadn't been confronted by a stranger, just his teacher, although seeing the calculated look in Iruka's eyes, Naruto wished maybe it had been some random citizen.

"Sorry, but I could help but notice that…ya' know…" Iruka pointed a tan finger at the monument in front of him, digits motioning to the paint job that was covering it. "…Do you know who did it Naruto?"

Naruto blinked a couple times, "casually" moving his paint stained hand to his pocket and twisting his face up.

"No idea."

"Really?" Iruka wasn't buying it, as his finger moved from motioning to the Hokage Rock to poking Naruto's cheek. "What's this then?"

The younger boys' eyes darted to the spot on his face, where he realized there was a very visible splash of red tinging his skin.

"…Jam."

"On your cheek?"

"I was tonging it out of the jar. You know me Iruka-Sensei, always a slob." Naruto tried to play it off jokingly, but the fragility in his tone was obvious.

"Alright then." Iruka began to turn away, only to stop suddenly on his heel. "Also, right under the Fourth Hokages face is "Written by Naruto Uzumaki" in big bold writing, mind telling me who did that?"

Silence overtook Naruto, his brain working overtime to try and make an excuse that made any sense.

"…There could be two people with the same name, you don't know."

"I'll see you after class, _**WHICH STARTS IN 10 MINUTES**_!" Irukas voice boomed out like a shockwave, sending Naruto scampering to make it to the Academy in time. After what felt like years of nonstop running, he rushed into the building on shaky legs, nearly collapsing on his desk, much to the annoyance of some of his classmates.

"Look what the cat dragged in." A blonde girl whispered, audibly enough so that everyone heard it, but quiet enough that Naruto would look like a moron if he said anything back.

Naruto quickly killed the uncontrollable frown that spread across his face, "cooly" leaning back on his chair, as the sound of footsteps filled the hallway, marking Irukas appearance.

"Hey everyone." He said, walking into the hardwood room.

"**Hello Iruka-Sensei**" The classroom echoed back.

"I hope you've been practicing, because today's, as all of you probably know, your final practice exam before becoming Genin, which, assuming we don't have any changes in schedule, should be tomorrow."

And just like that, the proverbial bomb was dropped on Naruto.

He processed the words, but something didn't click. His eyes glossed over, his mouth started to lull, overall his brain just shut down.

The next thing he knew, he was standing in line, waiting to display his clone jutsu.

_My worst jutsu is the one we need to pass, just my luck. _He thought with apathy and frustration so intense that even his inner-speak came out as a groan.

"Sakura, get on up here." Iruka said, with a relaxed tone, prompting a pink haired girl from the front of the class to walk down the aisle, her posture somehow supremely confident and extremely nervous at the same time.

The teacher marked a few lines on his notepad, before giving a small "go-ahead" hand gesture to Sakura.

She quickly matched her hands together in various different combinations, locking her fingers together, until -

_**Bamf!**_

A second Sakura appeared in front of her, smoke radiating from its feet, staying stationary for a few seconds, before smoke overtook its spot once again, the clone disappearing.

"Great work." Iruka said with a sunny smile, getting only a nod from the girl in response.

"Thank you, sensei." She politely said, turning around to walk back to her desk. The words echoed around her subconscious, before a flash of white brought forth a cartoonish version of herself.

_**YES! SAKURA YOU DID IT! NEXT STOP GENIN EXAM, NEXT NEXT STOP GREATEST KUNOICHI IN THE WORLD BABY!**_

The significantly more outgoing voice yelled to herself, as Sakura just stood on the steps, not moving.

"…You can sit down now Sakura." Iruka brought her crashing back to reality, causing the girl to jolt in surprise.

"Oh, yeah, Sorry!" She quickly stammered before she moved back to her desk, eyes slanting downcast to her hands to avoid any looks of shame she might be getting.

"Next up is…Sasuke." The voice from the front of the class beckoned a boy with spiked black hair and a navy-blue collared shirt up to the front of the class.

Naruto felt himself throw up in his mouth. He didn't hate Sasuke, but he hated a lot of things **about **Sasuke. The way everyone thought he was _**so**_cool, his stupid gelled hair, his stupid little "tsk" he did whenever Naruto did something stupid, and most of all, his shit-head "hands in my pockets" walk. Why did he put his hands in his pockets? It wasn't even cold, just leave your hands out asshole.

Before anyone could even react, Sasuke's hands had already turned into a blur, the clone emerging in the same cloud of smoke as Sakuras and disappearing just as quickly.

"Good job." Iruka said, Sasuke replying with some indiscernible mumble as he returned to his seat.

As Irukas finger traced the paper, looking for the next name, only to sigh as it touched the ink.

"Naruto, you're up." Iruka reluctantly said, causing Naruto to take a stroll up to the front of the room.

The blonde started to throw together hand signs but Iruka quickly noticed that these were not the ones of the clone jutsu, instead, they were something else entirely

"What are you- "His attempt to shut down the boy's antics came too late, as Naruto himself **exploded** into smoke, the screen eventually clearing to reveal…

A more mature, female Naruto, completely naked, only being obscured by thin ropes of smoke over her. With the same mischievous glint in her eyes as usual, she blew a kiss to Iruka, the emotional weight of it sailing through the air and hitting him.

The pink of the kiss slowly faded into a red line down his nose, Irukas thoughts going completely and utterly blank…

"_**NARUTO, IS THIS SOME SORT OF SICK JOKE?!**_" His voice imploded through the room, the sheer force of his anger sending Naruto back to his normal (clothed) form, laughing as he dropped to the floor.

"Ha! That's my sexy jutsu! Pretty funny right?"

"**NO!** Go to the Mizuki's office at once!" Iruka barked, the very mention of the location causing Naruto to drop his signature smile and lurk off, footsteps heavy on the wooden floor.

An uncontrollable sigh escaped Iruka when the boy was out of ear shot, his hand being placed over his eyes in frustration. When was he going to learn?

* * *

"Back so soon Naruto?" Mizukui's asked, subtle annoyance radiating from his voice, as the bell of the guidance counselor's office rang.

Naruto slumped himself in the far chair, slightly tilting his head away from the silver haired man in response.

"…Please express yourself Naruto."

"Alright, so I played this hilarious prank on Iruka-Sensei, where I transformed into a girl…" Naruto started, needing a ridiculously little amount of push from his counselor. "But then he got, like, super mad about it and sent me over here."

"Was anyone laughing at this joke?" Mizukui's eyes began to pierce the boy in front of him's very foundations. Narutos eyes widened for a second before they shifted back to normal.

"I wasn't really listening, but it was pretty funny, so I'm sure they were." He lied.

"And what drove you to pull this prank."

"I hadn't studied for my exams, and I got really stressed and…"

"Say no more, take the rest of the day off." Mizuki suddenly said, cutting off Narutos talking points and turning his tones previous annoyance into kindness.

"Huh?"

"When I was your age, the same thing happened to me. I forgot to study the body flicker before the big exam. It was some sort of divine intervention that I passed." His mouth smoothed out into a small smile.

"If you have to miss a few hours of school to become a genin, who cares?"

The words took a few seconds for Naruto to process, before his cheerful energy resumed and he bolted out of his seat.

"Thanksmizuki-senseiI'mgonnabecomethebestgennineverDATTEBAYO!" He tried to cram too many words into a sentence as he bolted out of the room, clearing the papers of Mizukis desk like a bolt of static electricity.

Time ticked down on the clock.

_**12:00PM**_

"Clone jutsu!" He brightly yelled, leading to the appearance of smoke and the conjuration of…a Naruto who looked like he'd drowned five years ago. "Damn it."

_**1:00PM**_

"Ram, snake, wait, what?" Naruto confused himself, snapping his hand seals the wrong way, which lead to chakra erupting from his hands and sending him flying back against a tree.

_**2:00PM**_

"Clone jutsu!" The Naruto that was summoned started to take form, much to its creators' pleasure…only for it to come out completely flat.

"Come on!" Naruto yelled, stomping out the floormat of a clone, before abruptly stopping, realizing it may be sentient.

"…Can you hear me?"

There was no response.

Narutos boots once again began to stomp.

_**3:00PM**_

Iruka made his way up to the already set up scaffolding of the Hokage rock, bucket of water in hand, expecting to see Naruto sitting there, grumbling to himself.

Instead, he found a note pinned onto the second Hokages chin that read:

"_Deer Iruka-Sensay, I need 2 train my clone jutsu so I can't scrub off the (_A word that was meant to be graffiti but may as well have been scribbles) _tonight, I'll do it tomorrow, thank u_

_-Naruto Uzumaki" _

The first thought that popped into Irukas head was that Naruto better ace his clone test, because he was not passing the written exam.

As he folded up the note and placed it into his pocket, Iruka took a few minutes to admire Narutos handiwork, only to realize something very…interesting.

For the first three faces, Naruto had jotted out things that were either crude or humorous. A penis drawn on The First's forehead, Bags under The Second's eyes, a line that turned The Third's neutral expression into an uncanny smile, lighthearted jokes of that nature, but when you looked at the fourth the story changed.

Text reading "Gone in a yellow flash!" and "Only 18 Months?!" were prominent on his facial features. The paint splashed over him was rough and aggressive, especially in comparison to the others on the monument.

Iruka raised a hand to his chin, deep in thought.

_**5:00PM**_

"Clone jutsu!" For once, blue aura started to spin around Naruto, engulfing him in a layer of pure energy. He felt the rush of power start to instill in him for the first time in…his whole life, maybe. It was almost like he was running on a high, this surge of energy was…

"Wait, this isn't the clone jutsu!"

_**BOOM!**_

His lack of concentration caused all that euphoria to be transferred into pain, as the chakra aura imploded on him, the force of impact sending him flying up into the air, before he hit the grassy ground **hard**.

_**8:00PM**_

"Clone…jutsu…" Naruto stammered, heavy limbs and aching bones barley letting him thrust up his hands to go through the signals. Desperately, he went through his hand signs, trying, _hoping_ for something to appear in front of him…

There was no smoke, no aura, nothing.

_**10:00PM**_

"cwone…jusu'…_**ZZZZZZZZZZZ**_!" Naruto was out like a light bulb, overuse of chakra leaving him collapsed and drooling on the ground. Even in his very subconscious though, something kept…ringing. Louder and louder it got, the young boy tossing and turning in his sleep to try and somehow shake it off.

_RING_

_RING_

_RING_

_RING_

_**11:00AM**_

_RING _

_RING_

_RING_

The ceremonial bells of the Gennin graduation came reverberating through the air, each ring crushing Naruto worse than the last.

Back and forth he swung on the wooden swing to the back of the Academy. Normally Naruto would try and aim for the clouds, but as of right now, he was content to let his feet scrape the dirt.

He didn't pass.

"Dad, can we go get something to eat, I'm starving." A black-haired boy said to his father lazily, as they passed the swing set with not even a look in Narutos direction.

"Once your mum gets off work, we'll go get whatever you want. Lest I can do for my boy becoming a ninja!" The goateed man threw a hand around his son, proudly clutching him close.

"Aw jeez, get off me. You guys are such a drag…"

If either of them had been listening closer, they would've heard the sound of wood creaking and footsteps taking off.

Naruto dashed through the skyline desperately trying to keep any tears in, as he leapt from building to building with no rhyme or reason. He didn't know where he was running to, he just wanted to try and clear his mind.

"Naruto!"

A voice came piercing through the cool morning air.

"Naruto!"

The voice rang out again, prompting the whiskerd-boy to slow down, the leather of his sandals burning on the concrete rooftop.

Silver hair drifted into sight, as Mizuki met the younger boy on the ridge, his appearance temporarily stunning Naruto in place.

"You failed huh?"

"Yeah." Naruto replied, trying (and failing) to make it appear as if he couldn't care less.

"Did you work hard?" Mizuki asked him sternly, which immediately brought Narutos emotions bubbling up.

"I did Mizuki-Sensei! I really tried, but I couldn't summon even a single clone!" He yelled grinding his foot into the sharp stone of the rooftop.

"I think I have something that could help you." The older man said, crouching down to Narutos height.

"What? What?!" Naruto's eyes childishly widened as his teacher bestowed a shining ray of hope upon him.

"Well, it's a secret, so you better not tell anyone else…" Mizuki moved his mouth to the eager Narutos ear, ready to divulge the information that would turn his whole life around.

* * *

"_NO, PUT ME DOWN, I WANT TO BE WITH MY MOTHER AND FATHER!" A young boy with a scarred nose screamed, as he was desperately clutched to the chunin vest of a running individual _

"_We have to run; you'll die out there Iruka!" The ninja said back, using all his power to try and get as far away from the monolith behind him as he could. _

_Iruka couldn't quite make out what he saw in the approaching smog. Flashes of red demonic eyes pierced through the purple haze, hauntingly harrowing in it's gazes. Occasionally, glimpses of yellow appeared to pierce the smokescreen, putting on what would be a dazzling display of color if the stakes weren't so high _

"_MUM! DAD!" Iruka screamed once more in futility. Closing his eyes and breathing in, he prepared to let out another shriek of terror. _

"Huh?"

The light filled his vision again. Any chaotic red had been replaced with the amber-tinged cape of sunset descending on the village.

He was ten years older.

Kicking himself for reminiscing on old memories, Iruka began to come to his senses, rubbing a finger over his scar stained nose.

It was 5 in the afternoon, where was Naruto? For everything wrong about the boy, he wasn't lazy.

The last time he'd seen him was when he failed the exam. Iruka reasoned that maybe that had disheartened him, but it didn't even seem like Naruto had any motivation or goal to pass in the first place, so why would this be such a blow…

"Iruka! Iruka!" Mizukis voice came blaring through the sky, the silver-haired man's psychical form struggling to keep up with his booming voice, worry coating his tone.

"What?" Iruka responded, as Mizuki finally landed next to him, panting.

"It's Naruto. He's made off with one of the sacred scrolls."

"…Do you mean- "Irukas eyes widened in terror as he realized the implications this might have.

"We don't know, just get down to the hokage residence, quick!" He yelled, rushing off again towards the direction of the oval building.

The next few minutes were a blur in Irukas mind, blocking out everything around him as he body-flickered towards the place of meeting. It was not until his feet finally hit the dusty dirt floor of the ninja assembly room, that Iruka realized where he was.

"This is an outrage! Who was guarding the scroll?!" One of the many ranked ninjas packed into the small space yelled.

"It was probably Taiga, that's why they were able to steal it!"

"Knock it off, you guys know I have bowl problems!" The man who was presumably Taiga shouted back.

"You bring a magazine and snacks into the bathroom with you every time. It's not a fucking cross-continent expedition."

"**That's enough**" A powerful voice said, sucking any and all noise out of the area like a vacuum to dust despite barley breaking the decibel range needed to be considered more than a whisper.

The third hokage entered the room, draped in his formal white and red robes, with his head obscured by hat and cloth.

"We have confirmed that the scroll the Naruto has taken was **not **the scroll of the six paths."

A wave of relief audibly washed over every ninja in attendance of the speech.

"Although, if he has any scroll at all, it's a potential danger to himself. Please track him down at once." Hiruzen said, authority in his voice clear, although being slightly undermined by the undercurrent of "it's 2 hours past my bedtime" that rippled through his inflection.

"Okay, Mizuki let's go…" Iruka said, preparing to body flicker away from the scene. "Mizuki?"

There was no one there.

* * *

Deep in a forest clearing, yelling was clearly heard.

"Yes! Yes**yesyesyesyesyes**!" Naruto announced, thrusting his hands up in the air in victory while the scroll sprawled onto the ground. The boy crouched down in exhaustion, taking time to recuperate his stamina, although any lack of energy was non-phasing to the high Naruto was on now.

"Wow, what have you been up to…" Mizukis voice suddenly echoed from the tree tops, the man himself appearing in a burst of wind.

"Mizuki-sensei!" Naruto bellowed from bellow; eyes characteristically wide in excitement. "I did it! I mastered the super-powerful technique! Do you reckon Iruka-sensei'll pass me now?!"

"That's quite a feat, Naruto." The silver haired mans locks reflected the moonlight as he made his way down from the tops of the trees. Despite his vocal exactment, his eyes slanted…sinisterly.

Naruto caught on to the plot quicker than the chunnin in front of him expected. He'd seen that look in people's eyes before. His feet began to move, but it was to late as Mizukis hand moved towards the boy's head, fingers grazing the green metal of Naruto's googles.

"Seven sealings jutsu."

Smoke overtook Narutos vision, clouding every sense, as he felt his arms and body become constrained, tight unidentifiable material constricting him against what felt like a tree.

When everything cleared, he saw Mizuki standing before him holding a kunai, the knife glimmering in the nighttime bloom.

"M-Mizuki-sensei, why the hell are you doing this?!" Naruto asked shakily, arms burning as he struggled from the constraints.

The man seemingly ignored his pleas, as the knife he was brandishing blurred, moving through the sky, ready to completely end Naruto.

The knife approached his face at startling speed, Narutos eyes only getting wider the closer the steel got to deforming him.

The sound of the steel cutting through wind zipped through the air, as Naruto braced in terror for the cut…

_**WHOOM!**_

The steel stopped, not even a millimeter away from his eye.

"Well, I guess it's a little less satisfactory if I don't tell you." Mizuki said, pure smugness radiating from his voice. He hilted the kunai and began to talk. "Naruto, have you ever wondered why the people of the village ignore you? Why they seemingly look past your every action, completely content on ignoring everything about you?"

Naruto was too stunned to talk, only managing a small nod.

"Thirteen years ago, the nine-tailed fox attacked the leaf village. It was an unrivaled tragedy; thousands were killed as a result of **that beast.**" His voice hitched venomously at the mention of the nine tails. "And what stopped it? Like an angel descending from the heavens, out came the Fourth Hokage…"

Mizukis voice had become mixed with a layer of psychotic sarcasm that Naruto hadn't quite heard before.

"He graciously saved us, by sealing the fox away. Where do you think it went?"

Naruto gulped, the already known answer dropping a weight on his shoulders.

"Inside you. That's why I'm going to kill you. For the good of the village, and, hey, the scroll of sealing will be a nice bonus."

"You're a liar." Naruto said back, not even believing it himself.

"Oh, I'm a liar? Iruka lost his parents to the same beast that's currently in you, is he a liar for keeping you around? He must **despise **you."

The sinking feeling in Narutos stomach rendered him completely unable to speak at this point.

"Oh, you're not talking to me now?! Fine, I've been going too long anyway." Mizuki once again equipped his knife, and thrust it towards Narutos face.

The sound of slicing wind spliced through the air, but it was joined by multiple others.

_**SLINKT!**_

_**SLINKT!**_

_**SLINKT!**_

Naruto felt the tight sensation around him let loss, as three shuriken came flying through the air, slicing the ropes that held Naruto up.

Mizuki's blade slammed into the wood where his targets head used to be, the man recoiling in surprise.

"Naruto, run!" Iruka yelled through the darkness, his voice fading away as Naruto heeded the advice and took off running.

With a snarl, Mizuki followed him, angered by the interruption.

The blonde's spatial awareness was shot, arms and base still aching from the constricting rope. He barley felt the sharp leaves grazing him as he ran through the forest, only focusing on the rapidly approaching humming that blazed towards him.

Leaves sputtered up from the ground as Mizuki appeared beside him, thrusting his knife out and trying to cut Naruto, who had sensed the attack coming, dodging it cleanly, only to clumsily step over his own feet and fall to the ground.

Mizuki lunged towards him, but his knife missed the mark again, Naruto crawling quickly towards the inside of a large log, around double the size of Naruto himself

For around five seconds the wooden tube felt like a sanctuary, Naruto being able to barley see anything as his hands desperately clutched onto the damp wood.

_**Crash!**_

Mizukis foot stamped through the log, splattering the wood around the ground and sending light flooding into Narutos vision once again.

The sense of elevation became apparent to the blonde, as the log was lifted off the ground and **thrown **against the base of a tree, shattering it completely and leaving Naruto exposed.

With a manic smile adorned on his features, Mizuki began to swing the kunai in his hands, taking a little too much time to pounce on his prey.

His foot lightly connected with something, the sensation blocking his concentration for just a moment. Looking down, Mizuki found his foot had hit what appeared to be a small white ball.

Silence filled the forest.

_**Bam!**_

Mizuki yelled out as a tightly contained batch of smoke was let lose from the ball's insides, coating the forest in a screen of steam, which temporarily blinded Mizukis blood lusted outlook. Reaching downwards, Mizuki blindly felt his hand hit the ground, using his other to cast handsigns.

"Wind release, uprooting tempest!" Mizuki yelled, a circular tornado of wind pushing up and removing any residual smoke. Calculatingly brutal, the mans eyes began to shift around looking for any shred of orange in sight.

From the corner of his eye, he spied an auburn pants leg dashing through the heavily congested trees.

"Got ya!" He said throwing the kunai at the target with extraordinary accuracy, eyes madly widening as he heard the metal pierce flesh. He lunged towards the body, crash tackling Naruto the ground, where he quickly took hold of the younger boy's collar.

Desperate for victory, Mizuki whipped a large, straight-edged fuma-shuriken off his back and prepared to bring it down on Naruto's head.

_**POOF!**_

Smoke surrounded and dispersed around the boy below him, revealing Iruka sat in Naruto's place.

"Ah, what?! A transformation?!" Mizuki set the smirking man before him down, before he pushed himself back onto his feet. "Iruka, what the hell do you think your doing?!"

"I'm not just going to let you kill one of my students Mizuki."

"Why the hell not. That kids a ticking clock, it's best to get rid of him now!"

Throughout all of this, the real Naruto had stationed himself behind a tree, working urgently to try and control his heavy breathing, but becoming caught up in listening to the two older men's conversation.

"You should understand me more than anyone Iruka, that… thing killed your family"

"The nine tails killed my family…not Naruto." Iruka said calmly, despite the fact he could barley feel his leg. "To blame him would be projection, nothing more. He's nothing like the nine-tailed fox, he's Naruto Uzumaki and he's one of a kind."

Silence once again returned to the forest, stunned in Mizukis case, surprised in Narutos.

_Iruka-sensei…_He thought clutching the scroll even closer to his chest as a way to try and distract his emotions.

"Alright, then…" Mizuki's voice suddenly returned with confidence. "I'll kill you too then. I was already going to take one head tonight; I can live with taking two."

The fuma-shuriken's metal cracked through the trees, as Mizuki brought it up to the sparkling moonlight. Preparing to throw it…

"_**IRUKA-SENSEI!**_" Naruto emerged from his hiding spot, rushing towards the two chunnin in front of him.

"Bingo." Mizuki said to himself, smirking as he switched the angle of the shot and threw the shuriken at Naruto, who, as expected, quickly tripped over under just the pressure of the situation.

For the second time that night, Naruto Uzumaki became convinced that he was about to die. The shuriken glided through the air with ease, despite having no features, it almost looked like it **wanted** to kill the boy.

He closed his eyes and braced.

It never came. He heard the sound of the weapon piercing something, but when he looked up, Iruka was standing over him, shuriken lodged in his back.

"Iruka-sensei? W-what the hell?" Narutos voice was breaking from stress at this point, no matter how confident he tried to make it sound. "_WHY THE HELL'D YOU DO THAT?" _He screamed, pitch still cracking.

"…Because when I lost my parents, I was just like you…I wanted them to laugh at me…to see me…"

Flashes of Iruka falling into the river, passing notes around class, drawing on the whiteboard all flashed into his mind.

"You can be great Naruto; I believe in you." Iruka said, through pained breaths, eventually giving up on keeping himself on his feet, collapsing next to Naruto.

"Wow, this is melting my heart." Mizuki sneered, looking at both of them with disdain, as Naruto began to lower his head in shame.

…but was it shame?

"You better stop looking at me like that." Narutos previously shaky voice was now…threatening. An underlying wave of dread washed over Mizuki, he and Narutos levels of confidence now swapped.

Red streaks of chakra began to circle around Naruto, causing Mizuki's eyes to widen in temporary shock.

"I said **YOU BETTER STOP LOOKING AT ME LIKE THAT!**" Narutos eyes came into clear view, his usual baby blues having shifted to demonically red.

"S-stay back!" Mizuki said, holding out a kunai knife uselessly, the action only serving to provoke Naruto further, as he let out a growl and charged towards his foe.

Mizuki had seen Naruto run before. He was fast. He wasn't this fast.

Before the chunnin could even blink, Naruto was in front of him, leaping up and throwing a punch towards Mizukis face.

The phenomenon of his nose shattering took a few seconds to register in his brain, but once Mizuki felt it, he **felt it**, as blood poured down his face.

The punch hadn't only stunned him though, as Narutos demonic red eyes widened at what he'd just done, the scarlet quickly being washed away by his regular blue color.

"Woah…I kicked his ass, dattebayo!' The hyperactive blonde exclaimed suddenly feeling very comfortable in the situation.

"You little shit…" Mizuki yelled, getting off the ground and pointing his knife at Naruto, who's confidence refused to fade.

"Come at me dude, I'll totally whip you!" He exclaimed smiling as his hands started to move into signs.

Seeing Naruto doing anything resembling competent ninjutsu was enough of a sight to prompt the banged-up Iruka to sit up from his spot on the ground and watch.

"I'LL FUCKING KILL YOU!" Mizuki screamed, as he rushed towards the boy, trying to numb the pain of his shattered nose (and ego) with a full-on assault, only to be greeted by a puff of smoke encasing the battle field.

It cleared out to reveal what had to be at least 60 clones of Naruto strewn over the battlefield, each one looking at him with the same shit-eating grin.

"I am Naruto Uzumaki, future Hokage of the hidden leaf and with my power-_***COUGH***_ "The sound of a deep voice boomed from the ring leader, before it proved too much for his throat to handle and he let out a loud splutter. "…just get him."

Several Naruto duplicates leapt down of their perch and rushed Mizuki, hammering him with punches and kicks. Each one was thrown with some of the worst form Iruka had ever seen in a ninja but when there were 60 of them and one of Mizuki, it didn't matter.

_**BOOM!**_

_**BOOM!**_

_**BOOM!**_

Every shot at Mizuki rang out across the forest clearing, the man in question helpless to the clone stampede that was covering him.

After a long stretch, the clones were manually dispersed, leaving Mizuki curled up in the middle of the paddock, bracing for more attacks that were never going to come, any fists thrown being replaced the tip-tapping of Naruto's sandals.

He looked up for a split second only to be greeted by the real Naruto's fist hitting him in the head **hard**, the blow powerful enough to knock the traitorous chunnin unconscious, although the attackers focus lay elsewhere.

"Iruka-sensei!" He screamed, running over to his teacher. "Are you ok?!"

"Yeah, I'm fine." Iruka managed to grumble, as he pushed himself up the tree stump he had been slouched against. "It's a minor injury."

"Oh, okay." Naruto said, calming down as it was revealed that any wounds suffered were skin deep at worst.

"You want to get some ramen Naruto?" Iruka asked, despite not being in any state to really go and get some.

Naruto's eyes nevertheless lit up.

"at Ichiraku?!"

"Yep…let me maybe get stitched up first though." Iruka grunted, retrieving a small pocket first aid kit, pulling out a needle and pointing it towards his back.

"Wait, Iruka-sensei, what the hell? What are you doing with-_**AAAAAAAAH**_!"

* * *

The scent of ramen was like a candy trail for Naruto, who had always reasoned that wherever he was in the village, he could find his way back by following the smell of ichiraku ramen. This also meant it he ever got lost outside the village he was screwed.

Brimming from ear-to-ear, Naruto took a seat at the ichiraku counter along with Iruka.

"Hey there's my favorite customer, what are you feeling like today Naruto?" The jolly man at the counter said, going from the back of the small stand to the front to meet the customers.

"Miso Pork please!" Naruto said back with the same enthusiasm.

"Alright, and you, sir?" The mans attention switched to Iruka who had been temporarily distracted by just how loud Naruto was.

"…Uh, Tonkotsu ramen thank you."

"Alright, I'll have your orders up in a jiffy." The man said, walking to the kitchen to lay out the ingredients with a young girl.

Silence filled the shack, but Naruto was seemingly content to just sit there, waiting for the ramen to be put in front of him so he could immediately scarf it down.

Iruka let out a sigh as it appeared any conversational habits would fall on him.

"Are you going to scrub the paint off the monument soon or…"

"Ah, come on Iruka-sensei! I saved your life just before, have a little sympathy." Naruto crossed his arms and pouted, holding strong…for about ten seconds before he groaned "I'll clean it tomorrow"

Iruka laughed slightly, but couldn't help but keep the question on his mind under wraps.

"Honestly Naruto, why did you even do it in the first place."

Naruto turned to him with a confused look.

"Didn't you hear me before? I'm gonna' become the greatest Hokage! Then everyone in the village is gonna have to stop ignoring me and treat me like I'm somebody! I basically just gave them a heads up."

The older man was taken aback initially, but it started to make sense. This is why he felt so bad about failing the gennin exam. Hokage certainly was a lofty aspiration, no wonder he was working hard.

Iruka debated with himself later that night over if his next actions were emotional or objective but either way, he knew he made the right choice.

"Hey, Naruto, I think I've got something for you…" Iruka said, digging into his jacket and rifling through the pockets, before retrieving…a Konoha standard-issued forehead protector.

He held it up in front of Naruto, the steel plate glimmering through the street-side light.

"Congratulations Naruto Uzumaki, you are now officially a Konoha genin."

Naruto stayed wide-eyed and silent for a few seconds before, emotions not changing, he moved towards Iruka.

"Naruto, what- "

Iruka was cut off by the boy's arms wrapping around him in a hug, happiness at this point literally pouring out of Naruto.

"Thank you Iruka-Sensei." He said, voice low and slow.

"It's okay." Iruka replied softly.

The excitement from the gift enhanced Narutos normal hyperactivity through the rest of the night. Even after the bowls of ramen were being washed, he had gone running off through the skyline, despite Irukas instructions to "get home safe".

Using his immense energy reserve to run up a high-rise chimney (the highest point he could feasibly climb), Naruto stationed himself at the very top of it, extending his arms outwards before letting out a bellowing scream.

"NARUTO UZUMAKIS A GENIN! ARE YOU WATCHING KONOHA?! CAUSE I'M GONNA BE THE GREATEST HOKA- "

His speech was cut off by the sound of a sliding window being opened and an old man poking his head out, angrily.

"Kid, can you keep it down?! I'm trynna' sleep back here!" He yelled upwards at Naruto.

"Okay, sorry." Naruto whispered back, even the chewing out not being enough to take the smile off his face. The window was quickly closed.

"**greatest Hokage**!" Naruto harshly whispered to literally no one in particular, before dashing off towards his home.


	2. Squads Revealed: Team 7 Emerges!

"_Just like that, and yes, it's ready and_…" Sakura motivated her actions through rhythm, as she adjusted her hair, tying the pink locks up with her deep-red painted forehead protector.

Her eyes darted to the side and linger to lingered on her reflection in the shiny mirror that accompanied her closet door frame.

_**Oh my god, I look so great! **_The inner-Sakura yelled, as she observed herself…only for outer Sakura to move her eyes from the vapid reflection to the **very real** clock on her wall.

_**Oh shit!**_

The girl bolted through the household, although still careful not to knock anything over despite her panic, before finally reaching the door and practically _**smashing**_down the hardwood barrier as she made her way onto the dirt streets of Konoha.

Her mind was focused completely on making it to the academy building, but unfortunately, her body was still a while away from reaching that point.

"Hey lady, watch it!" A voice screamed at her, Sakura herself being unable to put any features on the body she just shoved past.

"Sorry!" She shouted back, surprisingly sincerely considering how shot her focus was.

Her feet continued to hit the ground at a frantic pace, several other incidents that involved her bumping past others yielded yells of "I'm so sorry" and "Excuse me!" from the girl, the courtesies becoming relentless until, finally, she reached the cheap wood gates of the Konoha academy.

Finally being able to walk attentively like she was used to, Sakura walked into the classroom, eyes carefully observing a spot to sit, and just like that the angels decided that after her disastrous walk to the graduation ceremony, they would hand her the greatest gift in the world:

A seat next to Sasuke Uchiha.

Calmly as she could, Sakura took the spot at the desk.

_**Huh?!**_

But she misjudged her seating position, ending up almost half a meter away from Sasuke.

_**Oh my god, why would you even try to sit next to him if you're not even going to SIT NEXT TO HIM!**_

Sakura grimaced, lifted herself up and sat back down next to him.

_**Come on! If you're going to sit next to him, go all in at least!**_

Sakura once again performed the same "elevate and descend" maneuver, edging even closer to the boy by her side.

Like a gunshot, Sasukes eyes shot to the side, the sudden whip of his head causing Sakura to freeze up under his gaze.

"What are you doing?" The words were backed up by Sasukes calculating eyes staying completely stationary on her.

"Uh…" Sakuras voice hitched, before she quickly cleared her throat, lacing her words with a much-needed shot of clarity "Just sitting here."

"…Okay." Sasuke said, returning his vison to his clasped hands.

The active show of disinterest did little to sway Sakura though, who held a hand up to her hair.

"I painted my headband red."

"_**AAAH?! WHAT THE HELL ARE YOU DOING"**_ Inner Sakuras voice reverberated loudly through the girls head

"…Okay." Sasuke repeated, doing little to show any interest in the (at this point) one-way conversation that was being forced upon him.

"It's totally in style now, you know?"

"I wouldn't." At this point, Sasuke actively tilted his face away from the girl next to him.

Inner Sakura began to sob at this point.

Luck seemed to be on her side however, as the sound of the academy door bursting open was heard, an unmistakable spark of orange stepping through the doors, completely breaking any awkwardness that had filled the room.

"Naruto Uzumaki is here!"

Is what the blonde boy would have shouted under different circumstances. The excitement that bubbled within him was more than enough to sate any need for widespread acknowledgment.

Smile plastered on his face; he took a seat between a ponytailed boy and a girl with pale violet eyes. Unable to contain his joy, he turned to face the former with a smile, motioning at his headband.

"Shikamaru! Do you see this, I did it, I passed!"

Shikamaru simply opened one of his resting eyes to look at Naruto with a confused expression.

"What? Did you not pass initially or something?"

Having unknowingly revealed the fact that he came millimeters away from not being allowed into the academy today, Naruto curled his lips up into a pout.

"I t-t-think it's g-great you p-passed Naruto!" The girl to his right said, twitching her index fingers together nervously, as blush adorned her cheeks.

"Hey! Thank you…" Naruto's enthusiasm returned as he prepared to thank the violet haired girl next to him, only to run into a brick wall of greetings…

He didn't know her name.

"…." Naruto stayed silent, brain working overtime, desperately trying to remember the girls name before she realized what he was doing.

Of course, he did not accomplish this.

The pale-eyed girl looked nervously down at her hands, her fingers pressing together even tighter. She had sat next to him consistently for the last three years.

"M-my name i-is…" She tried to start but Naruto quickly put a hand to her face.

"No, I've got it…" He tried to push his brain even harder but it was for naught, the ever-stacking pressure of the situation causing him to struggle even more.

"My name's-" She muttered only to be immediately cut off.

"Wait! Hold on…uhh, **H!**"

The girl's pale eyes lit up as he did in-fact get the first letter of her name right.

"Yes!"

"H-H-H…" So close, he was so close. "…Hanabi! Wait, no that's your sister."

The conversation iced over for a few seconds

"…. Is your name "Hanbye" with a b-y-e?" He finally said after a long string of silence.

She shook her head.

Her name was Hinata Hyuga. She'd been in love with Naruto Uzumaki for as long as she could remember. She'd been there with him when he first started at the academy, she'd eaten with him a few times when no one else would, she'd made sure to always muster up a "hi" to him when she arrived.

He didn't know her name.

"Wow, this is sad." A snappy feminine voice spat through the air, as a blond-haired girl observed the pair below her.

"Mind your own business Ino!" Naruto spun around with ignited anger that the tone of someone talking down to him usually lit.

"Her names Hinata, just so you know." Ino replied, her brief interest in indulging Naruto's antics visually dwindling.

"I knew that!" He loudly lied.

"Wow, you knowing something, that's a first." She said, her snark returning as her lips curled into an even smarmier smile at her own humor.

"Hey, knock it off Ino!" Suddenly, Sakura called out from two aisles below her rival, her compassionate but enraged tone contrasting with the Yamanaka girls crass one.

"Make me!" Ino shouted back, scrunching up a paper ball and chucking it at Sakura, who couldn't even react due to surprise. The stiff white ball hit her square in the forehead, her face crumpling up in embarrassment as the projectile tumbled to the ground, rolling down the stairs.

"I'd pat myself on the back for hitting you, but, I mean, your foreheads already a big target so…"

"It is not!" If Sakuras composure had been on its last legs before, she was flatlining now. "If I had to guess off the top of my head without measuring it at all, I'd say it's only 2.78 centimeters bigger than average!"

The pink-haired girl raised herself off her seat as she said this, crunching her fists as she walked up to Ino's aisle, eyes white with anger.

Just as quickly, Inos brow collided with hers, the pair's eyes locking, tension displayed in them almost forming an electrical bridge between their pupils.

"Yeah sure, **only **2.78 centimeters." Ino harshly said back with venom.

"YES ONLY 2.78 CENTIMETERES AND IT'LL BE SMALLER IN A FEW YEARS!" Sakura repeated, eyes widening even further, as she brought her hands to Inos collar.

"Oh, don't try and fight with me! I finished second in the year level!" The blonde yelled back, as she felt Sakuras hand graze her neck.

"Yeah, so? I finished sixth, that's p-pretty good!" Sakura attempted to display confidence, but her delivery was sorely lacking in any.

"Sakura, you're bottom tier, along with the rest of the deadbeats in this class. That's the reason Sasuke's gonna be on **my **team, not yours!" Ino replied, cockily dragging her eyelid down and poking out her tongue.

"What did you say?!" The name of the Uchiha boy was enough to send Sakura into a blinding rage, almost ready to legitimately throw hands.

"Sasuke was first, I'm second, the rest is irrelevant. I'm already closer to him then you'll ever be!"

Sakura's eyes dropped downcast with rage, Inner-Sakura picking up all the steam that her anger was generating inside.

_**Oh you smug piece of shit, I'll show you who's- **_

"Hey, asshole!"

_**Huh?**_

Narutos voice rung out across the room, words bouncing all around the generally thick walls.

Stepping out of his chair with his usual unwarranted swagger, he made his way down the aisles, directly towards Sasuke. Both girls' squabbles were put on hold as they decided it would be more worth their while to just observe whatever bullshit Naruto was gonna pull.

Truth be told, Naruto's actions were motivated by the pair's conversation. He had liked their argument when it was about **him** or whatever, but just like everything, it had reverted back to Sasuke. _Sasuke, Sasuke, Sasuke_. What was so great about him anyway.

Meanwhile, his obnoxious call out had gotten no response from the boy in question, Sasuke simply ignoring (or not noticing) Naruto's cries.

"Hey, gloomy, I'm talking to you!" The fox-faced jinchuriki's features shimmered mischievously, as he walked into Sasukes aisle, attempting (and failing) to try and loom over the seated boy.

"Can I help you with something?" Sasuke asked, his sharp glance in Naruto's direction taking the aggressor slightly off-guard. Despite the seemingly polite statement, Sasuke's almost-dead black eyes conveyed a tone of annoyance and apathy.

Naruto hated annoyance and apathy.

"What makes so you special, huh? Why's everyone talking about you?" Naruto aggressively asked, not really realizing how stupid his question really sounded.

"No clue. I'm just like you, a regular genin of the hidden leaf." Sasuke blankly said back, the annoyance in his eyes growing harsher by the second.

"Yeah well, I'm not a regular genin, I'm gonna be the greatest Hokage, dattebayo!" The tracksuit-clad ninja thrusted a baggy arm to himself, hand and thumb extended in his own direction.

His now-rival made a pause, before letting out the sincerest display of emotion anyone in the room had seen him display.

A small, controlled laugh.

"Yeah, and I'm gonna' walk on the surface of the moon." Sasuke spat back as his air of humor dyed down, any balanced emotion between the two being overcome by Naruto's sizzling anger.

"Hey! Who says I can't?! Not all of us can be born into a _fancy bloodline_." With the pronunciation of those final words, Naruto's voice became downtrodden and deep, poorly trying to replicate his foes.

To his credit, the insult did actually seem to faze Sasuke, as the Uchiha's mouth uncontrollably frowned and his eyes slanted.

"Do you need me to remind you that you finished dead last on the tests? In fact, you barley even passed. How are you going to become Hokage with those kinds of results?"

"Uh…" The calm but scathing reply left Naruto with nothing even resembling a decent comeback. This, accompanied by a small snort of laughter from Ino, left his already embarrassed brain essentially mush.

Realizing he was fighting a losing battle (although he would not admit it), Naruto began to step backwards, facial features still focused in a scowl directed at the raven-haired boy in front of him.

"You probably thought I was gonna' jump on your table huh? Well, guess what? Not gonna', not an idiot- "With this, Naruto walked backwards into a chair that had been stationed behind him, doing a full trip over the smooth wood and falling on his back.

Immediately, he popped back up from the floor, shaking his joints quickly before continuing to frown and back away from Sasuke as if he hadn't just lost a fight to an inanimate object.

"Good morning class!" Irukas merry voice derailed any attention from the "skirmish" of the two genin.

"_**Good morning Iruka-Sensei**_."

"Let's hear some joy in those voices, you're officially ninja- "

Iruka's monologue faded into the background as both Naruto and Sasuke dispersed from the other, Naruto throwing a "my eyes on you" hand gesture at his rival.

Sasuke's face scrunched up in confusion as he quickly thrusted his hands up in a shrug.

Naruto refused to live and let live, as his hand signs began to become more intricate (and even more confusing). First, he pointed to his eye, then to a spot on the table where he made an "o" shape with his fingers and then pointed that "o" to Sasuke.

This only served to further alienate, the message he was trying to convey, as Sasuke's face finally shifted from apathetic boredom to annoyed confusion, further thrusting his hands up, trying to communicate the fact that Naruto was doing the sign language equivalent of gibberish.

"First up, we have Team 8, led by Kurenai Yuhi. The students included in this group are…" Iruka read from his piece of paper, the words having great effect on literally everyone but Naruto and Sasuke.

"Shino Aburame."

The spectacled ninja in question had little reaction to the announced team, producing what **could've **been seen as a small nod but was more likely just him tilting his head slightly.

"Kiba Inuzuka."

A scruffy boy with a hood insulated with fur let out a fist bump at the news, the small white dog next to him barking in joy.

"And Hinata Hyuga."

Hinatas eyes widened in shock, before eventually settling back down in sadness.

_I'm…not with Naruto_.

Looking desperately to her side, she hoped to see Naruto staring back at her sadly, heart broken as he was forced to separate from her. His blue eyes would be almost running wet with tears and…

_**Bang! Bang! Bang!**_

Naruto was doing none of that. Instead, he was slamming his hands on the table (as "quietly" as one could), before he started peeling his eyelids back at Sasuke, who reciprocated his movements with a silent hand whip that was almost universally identified as "what the fuck are you doing?!"

Hinata's pool of self-pity became so large, she thought she may drown.

"Naruto! Sasuke! Stop that!" Irukas voice ended both boys war of gestures, causing them both to look the other way in a huff. "Okay, now we move on to Team 7, led by Kakashi Hatake. The students included in this group are: Sakura Haruno…"

_**Come on, come on…**_ Sakura chanted to herself, fingers practically splitting at the bone, they were so tightly crossed.

"Naruto Uzumaki."

Naruto and Sakura both exchanged a quick glance, intentions both reading identical:

_Eh, could be worse._

"And Sasuke Uchiha."

This matching thought was quickly replaced by two more.

An _**AHHH! This couldn't get any better!**_ From Sakura and a-

"WHAT?! ARE YOU KIDDING ME?!" From both Naruto and Sasuke simultaneously.

"Iruka-Sensei, what the hell is this?!" Naruto shouted; anger contrasted by his rivals slightly emotional pleading.

"Iruka-Sensei, please no…" Sasuke said hands grabbing his face in annoyance.

"If you have a problem with the squad formations, take it up with the Third."

Realizing that was the polite way of saying "you're not getting a group swap", both Naruto and Sasuke sat back in their seats, even more riled up than before.

"And now for Team 10, led by Asuma Sarutobi.…" Iruka continued, opening the document to the next page.

Sakura, in the meanwhile, took time to spin herself around and stick her tongue out at Ino, who couldn't help her anger boiling over.

"What the hell? Why do you get to be with Sasuke?!"

"Don't ask me, the groups are randomized don't 'cha know?" Sakura replied, her feigned cluelessness rippling with an undercurrent of superiority.

Ino's mouth instinctively began to move, unfortunately faster than her mind, as any comeback she had was translated into sputters and angry "tsks".

"Why'd you even want anyone specific in your group anyway. "Sasuke Uchiha in my ninja squad" seems like a pretty low goal." Shikamaru loudly rattled off, as he annoyingly faced the Yamanaka girl, expression blank.

"Oh god Shikamaru, you're so clueless! Don't you know how anything works?" Ino replied angrily, diverting any ire she'd saved for Sakura and redirecting it at him.

"_The students in this group are…Choji Akimichi!_"

A plump boy gave a small smile of recognition, although he was more focused on scraping the crumbs from his chip packet than anything else, including the audible squabble going on a few rows behind him.

"Yeah, yeah, whatever, quit yammering to me, okay, you're too loud."

"You're so lazy, you can't even function properly for more than a minute." Ino shot back, ignoring the pony-tailed ninjas request.

"…_Shikamaru Nara…_"

"All right! Yeah, Shikamaru!" Choji's excited voice came shooting up from the bottom of the classroom, quickly being met with a smile and finger gun of recognition from Shikamaru.

"Thank god, I'm not going to be with you two losers. I don't know **what **I'd do if I was on your squad."

"_And Ino Yamanaka" _

Just like that, Iruka had not only managed to take the wind out of Ino's sails, but sink the ship and drown the crew. Again, she seized up in anger, words not being able to take form, and that silence from her creating an awkward lull of silence in the air, backed up by quietly simmering anger.

"Yep. That would be tragic." Shikamaru took up the loose thread of conversation she'd left behind, his words heavy with their bluntness.

"One. More. Word." The blonde didn't even face him, instead just extending a stiff index finger.

Shikamaru slouched further in his chair and made a "zipped lips" motion with his finger.

Despite the absolute indifference most of them had shown to their team-mates, there was one thought that remained almost constant throughout everyone in the class:

_This is gonna be a long few months_

* * *

All the other genin had been herded out of the classroom, whisked away on some magical ninja adventure with their teachers. Meanwhile, Team 7 had been told to stay put in the classroom until the teacher arrived.

They were told this fifteen minutes ago.

The only sounds that filled the air were the impatient tapping of Naruto's foot, Sakura occasionally shuffling her elbow and Sasuke's random grunts upon realizing that there was still a massive empty space at the front of the room.

Nothing.

Nothing.

…more nothing?

"Alright that's it!"

"Naruto, what are you doing?" Sakura asked, eyes confused as she watched the hyperactive ninja walk to the front of the class and grab an eraser off the desk.

"It's his fault for being late!" Naruto muttered as he wedged the dusty device up against the wedge of the door frame.

"Are you crazy? Don't d-do that…" Sakura scolded him, struggling to keep a slight smile from creeping on to her face.

_**Oh god, this is gonna be hilarious!**_

_What an idiot_. Sasuke just thought to himself, the futility of the gag becoming clear to him immediately. The teacher was an elite-level jonin, did Naruto really think that a stupid "falling eraser" trick was going to trip him up.

Footsteps suddenly reverberated through the halls, alerting all three of the squad members to their teachers' presence.

"_Shut up, shut up!_" Naruto hushed to the two (who weren't even talking), as he scampered over to his seat, the impact of sandals on wood echoing closer.

The sounds abruptly stopped.

The door knob was twisted, a loud crack rumbling through the old door.

_**Fwoosh!**_

A silver haired man walked in through the door. His face drew immediate attention, as one of his eyes had been observed with a navy-blue mask, which occupied his face on a slope, almost like a scar.

None of the three were focused on this, instead their eyes were locked onto the eraser that had been positioned at the top of the door. It descended through the air like a bomb, so simple yet so beautiful in it's dropping point.

_**Thwack!**_

It landed on the teacher's head, gently bouncing off his spiked hair and flopping on the ground. The older man had, at this point, stopped moving.

Silent tension became apparent as his one unguarded eye began to size up the students. There was no immediate threat of anger in his expression but the absolute blankness may have been even worse.

"Pfft…_**HAHAHAHA!**_ Oh, I got him good!" Naruto wasted no time ignoring this so he could pat himself on the back.

_He actually fell for it?!_

"…Kakashi-S-Sensei, I'm so sorry! I told him he shouldn't have done it, I swear, I knew this would- "

The man looked at the speaking party with little interest, as Sakura prattled on about things that concerned him about as much as the fly that was buzzing around the classroom window and just as he predicted, the blonde boy's laughter was much akin to an alcoholic buzz, it fizzled out quickly but the remnants of it remained completely irritating.

Soon enough, the quite resumed, not a single word having been uttered by the victim of the prank, letting the complete lack of words speak for themselves.

In his first display of…anything, he reached downwards and cerebrally picked up the eraser, observing it almost like a piece of fine art.

"That was a good one." He finally said, lurching back up to his full height, eraser in hand.

"…See, I knew it was funny!"

"But you know what wasn't a good…" His voice was low and slow as he faced away from the previously-talking Naruto. He strode casually to the desk, leaning against it as a silent but powerful aura emanated from every footstep in his path. "…This first impression. This has been a bad first impression. I am severely doubting all of your mental capabilities at this moment."

While the words registered with Sasuke and Sakura, Naruto's eyes visibly displayed his minds inner confusion at the choice of vocabulary. The teacher needed only a split-second to realize this before he stated:

"Translation: I think all of you are very, **very **stupid."

All three sank in their chairs.

Not a good start.

Wood was replaced with stone, as the quartet of ninjas made their way up to the top of a building, where tightly packed warmth was replaced with harsh, chilling winds.

"Hey, Kakeishi-sensei, why'd you take us up here? It's freezing!" Naruto yelled out above the blowing breezes (surprisingly easily at that), his protests earning only a blank gaze from the teacher who's name he'd just butchered.

"Do you want us to go back downstairs?"

"…No, but- "

"Then why did you say anything at all?"

Naruto's mouth opened, instinctively ready to yell something, only to quickly realize he had nothing to say.

The winds continued to hiss and sting, only getting worse as the older man instructed them all to sit down in round-table formation on the freezing cold surface of the flat tile roof.

"Okay…let's do some icebreakers. I want you to go around one-by-one and introduce yourself. Your name, likes and dislikes, and goals for the future."

"Hey, Kanashi-Sensei, can't you go first, ya' know, so you can show us how it works and stuff?"

The response to Naruto's question was an uncomfortable amount of silence and an eventual loud sigh from the only standing person.

"Okay…my name is **Kakashi** Hatake." He said, before quickly coughing and refocusing his eyes on Naruto. "Excuse me, I'm not sure if you got that so I'll say it again, **Ka-ka-shi **Hatake."

The intensity present in his voice stuck out like a sore thumb to everyone except the person it was aimed at, although Kakashi was quick to resume his slow tone.

"My likes…I don't really have any. My dislikes…I shouldn't say. As for dreams…I saw a hat on sale at the corner store. Maybe I'll buy it."

Each student expectedly sweat-dropped at the lazy response, all three of them questioning exactly how Kakashi had qualified to be a teacher. Was he some sleeper agent for a foreign country trying to attack the leaf? Or was he just stupid? Well, even if 99% of teachers hired were competent there was still going to be that 1%.

"You, in the orange." Kakashi barked, in a tone that anyone smarter than Naruto would consider demeaning. "Tell us about yourself."

"My name is Naruto Uzumaki!" He wasted no time in yelling. The surname caused a brief sliver of curiosity to be visible in Kakashi's eye.

"Can you run back that last name please?"

"Uh, Uzumaki?"

Kakashi emoted something, but due to the almost full obscuration of his face, none of the students could discern anything from it.

"…Continue."

"I like Ichiraku Ramen and funny frogs that jump around." To emphasize this, Naruto bounced his fingers up and down, to absolutely no one else's enjoyment.

"…Any dislikes?"

"Sometimes, when their really packed out, Ichiraku takes **so long **to make even a single bowl. My goal…is to become the greatest hokage!"

Despite attempting to remain emotionless, Kakashi couldn't help his single exposed eye dropping in disappointment, completely indifferent on Naruto's goal. "Pink girl, you next…"

"Ah, my name is Sakura Haruno. I like…paintings and music…" She started off speaking confidently, but quickly faltered once anything personal was required to be read. It was painfully obvious to everyone listening that Sakura did not really like paintings and music more than the average person.

"There's not many things I don't like and my dream is…to become the greatest kunoichi in the world…" Not a single answer aside from her name felt convincing, and even she knew it.

_**Oh my god! You sounded like a complete LOSER! WHAT THE HELL ARE YOU EVEN SAYING?!**_

"Thank you, Sakura, that was very informative." Kakashi said in a tone that implied he did not find it informative. "You next."

His finger extended to Sasuke, who automatically grimaced at even the thought of talking. After a few seconds of silence, he finally opened his mouth.

"My name is Sasuke Uchiha, I like warm tomato soup on cold days. That's it. I dislike most things. My dream is…" His eyes filled with a look of anger that the other genin in attendance hadn't seen before, even Naruto letting out a "gulp" at the sight.

"…to kill my brother."

Quiet hung heavy in the air and eyes were left wide as Naruto and Sakura took in what he'd just said.

"Sasuke you will be staying for five minutes after this session ends." Kakashi finally said, cutting through the tension like a hot knife through butter.

"Wait, why?!" Sasuke's eyes turned from bloodlust to confusion, the first display of emotion that either of his teammates had seen him display.

"The amount of time it took you to say twenty-seven words shows you're not opposed to wasting mine, so why not take five minutes more?"

Sasuke just glared back at his teacher, who took no notice.

"Well, let's not dilly-dally all day. Your fest test comes up right now."

"_**Right now?!**_" All three students said, with varying levels of enthusiasm.

"Yes, this is one test of two that you'll be taking in order for me to figure out if you're really ready to be genin."

"Huh, but the exam- "Sakura started only to be promptly cut off.

"-Was a test to see who wasn't completely incompetent. Unfortunately for you three, the bare minimum is not nearly enough for you to be ready for the field."

All three felt a looming sensation of dread crawling up their backs from every word Kakashi said.

"But don't worry, if you fail this test, you have a second chance. Although that second chance will be significantly more strenuous then if you simply pass this one, okay?"

It was at this point that Naruto leaned over to Sakura, hand covering the side of his mouth.

"He's saying nice words but they sound…_mean_."

Sakura quickly nodded in agreement, both of them quickly retuning into Kakashi's speech.

"Your first test will be to answer this question…" The masked man took a pen out from behind his ear, as well as a notepad from his pocket, scribbling across it. It read:

_**What does a poor man have in spades that a rich man does not?**_

The trio read the message over and over again, trying to quickly think of an answer and get it over with. However, as soon as Narutos lips even slightly moved, Kakashi was quick to shush him…

"Ah, ah, ah. Remember, you only have one answer." He said, holding up a finger, before reaching into his pocket and retrieving a small, almost broken-down alarm clock, placing it at his feet. "You have until sundown to give an answer."

With that, Kakashi raised himself onto the buildings railing, crouching in preparation for a body flicker.

"Wait, where are you going?" Sasuke asked, eyes still lingering with annoyance.

"I'm going to get lunch. Maybe something with duck? Or pork…Ah, I'll decide on the way."

"Wait, sensei…"

_**Fwoosh!**_

And just like that, he disappeared, leaving three disappointed genins in his wake. Despite the fact that teacher had quite literally vanished, Naruto still leaned over the railing and yelled out, as loud as he could:

"Can you get me some too?"

* * *

Iruka was mad, papers clutched close to his chest as he stormed through the Hokage building.

"Mr. Umino, do you have an appoint-hey, wait!" The obviously tired male receptionist shouted, as the chunin stormed through, directly to Hiruzens room.

Reaching the surprisingly unofficial-looking paper doors, Iruka threw them open with anger, only to be met with an equally angry groan from the old man behind them.

"Jesus, can't an old man just **PAINT **for more than three minutes?!" Hiruzen shouted, nearly cracking the calligraphy brush in his hand from stress. Slowly, he turned around, not even attempting to hide the grimace worn on his features. "What do you want Iruka?"

"I can't believe you lord third!" Iruka slammed the paper files on the table next to the kneeling Hokage, opening up folder and sifting through it. "How could you let Kakashi Hatake take a genin team?"

"What do you mean."

"Every team that he's taught has been failed and dismissed in under two weeks. Not even a single one of his students have ever reached chunin! This is an outrage, no genin on this level can possibly pass his test"

Hiruzen just took a puff from his pipe and sat up to his full height (which was still alot shorter than Iruka), calming down somewhat.

"Kakashi has high standards. It was the way he was taught himself…if you really care about Naruto, you'd know he wouldn't want it any other way." Hiruzen mused, smiling to himself.

"Hey, who said this was about Naruto?!" Iruka weakly protested, intentions behind his intrusion obvious.

"You can leave Iruka." The Hokage said, beginning to walk away from both the man and the conversation "…and make an appointment next time."

"But, but! Aah" Iruka gritted his teeth, slapping himself on the head for being so careless.

* * *

_**Tick, tick, tick, tick!**_

Downwards and downwards the clock ticked, each student racking their brains for the answer.

Sakura had been thinking about it for around an hour, keeping a consistent gaze on the timer, the sun and (sometimes) Sasuke. At this point, the boredom was her worst enemy as she'd given up on finding an immediately-recognized-as correct answer a while ago.

"Hey, Sakura!" Narutos yelled (probably two times louder than he needed to), as he plopped himself down in front of her.

"Yeah?"

"Wanna bounce answers off each other?"

Straitening her posture, Sakura sat up, surprisingly open to the idea.

"Okay, what have you got?"

Naruto's face shriveled up, bottom lip curling over the other while his eyes purveyed a strong visual of guilt.

"…You tell me yours first."

Sakura couldn't help but smile at the boys failed attempt to make it look like he actually had an answer at all.

_**Tick, tick, tick, tick!**_

Sakura noticed the sun start to dim, cuts of white being slowly singed yellow. A quick look at the timer confirmed her suspicions.

"What if, it's like, dirt? Because rich people probably get rid of all their dirt and poor people don't, because they can't afford a dirt removal guy."

"…Is dirt remover an actual job?" Sakura asked, half-sincere curiosity, half-sarcastic humor.

"How else do they get dirt out of places?"

"Sweeping?"

"Oh yeah, forgot about that one." Naruto said, eyes widening, before he gracefully pivoted to another question. "Do you think rich people have, like, rich brooms."

Sakura wanted to just ignore what might be the dumbest question she'd ever heard in her life, but she was…stupidly curious.

"I don't think so, I mean, how much can you improve on a basic broom."

"I dunno', maybe they have little water fountains on the side of it that shoot out and help you clean."

Before she even realized what she was doing, Sakura let out a giggle.

_**What the hell?!**_ Inner-Sakura tried to get a grip on her outer-self, but it was no use, the real Sakura had fully been wrapped up in the conversation.

"You know what, I'd spend money on that…actually, you'd probably end up hitting the water spray button when you were in-doors and it'd ruin the carpet and stuff."

"Yeah, that's true. Maybe they'd have to do a safety-lock on it."

"That might actually work…Naruto, you better get this patented quick." She joked, surprised at how quickly Narutos usual mischievous expression broke out into a bright smile at the sine of any humor.

Maybe she'd misjudged him.

_**Tick.**_

"Ooh! Ooh! Maybe it's instant ramen! Because rich people buy proper packaged ramen, which isn't as good as the instant ramen?"

Sakura sighed at the 15th bullshit answer Naruto had given in the last two hours. While they were somewhat consistently funny, they were also completely distracting. She'd always written off Naruto as one of those kids that probably ate glue, but his stupidity was somehow widespread and infectious like a parasite. This was…weaponized glue eating.

"Is the expensive ramen really that bad?" She asked, almost involuntarily.

"It sucks! I had a packet once, and the noodles were promoted as "organic" whatever the hell that means. They tasted like paper…maybe that's what organic means!"

"I don't think that's true." Sakura quickly shot down his discovery, only to be completely interrupted by a ringing sound.

_**BRIIIIIING! BRIIIIIIING! BRIIIIIIIIING!**_

"WHAT?!" She shrieked, only somehow now realizing how far down the sun was. Immediately, feelings of regret and wasted time began to flow through her. Why had she spent so much time talking about…water fountain brooms instead of figuring out the answer.

_**Oh god, you idiot! Imagine what mum's gonna say when we drop back to the academy! **_

Slowly she sunk her head into her knees, only mad at herself for letting time slip.

"What's up Sakura?" Naruto absent-mindedly asked, sitting up to his feet. Sakura briefly popped her head out of the miniature cave she had created for herself.

"We lost Naruto, the timers done, we don't have an answer." Her stare was not on the verge of tears, but instead, almost glossed over and blank.

"…So? We've got a second chance!"

"Yeah, which we'll probably fail as well."

"And then we go back to the academy, big whoop. We'll just take the exams again in a few months and then get a teacher that's not such an asshole!"

"I guess…" She couldn't say his argument wasn't somewhat reassuring. "…and I guess it'd kind of be nice, it's not like I have many…friends in this grade anyway." Her smile returned although it was somewhat pained.

"How many friend's do you have?" Naruto immediately asked, strangely focused.

"It used to be one but now it's…." Her grin left just as quickly as it came, upon having to confront the unfortunate reality of her situation. "…zero."

"Hey, I've got zero as well! If we become friends than we'll both have one!"

Sakuras eyes widened. Friends with Naruto Uzumaki? The perennial fuck up?! She couldn't just say yes.

_**Say no, and say he's stupid and dumb and an idiot. Come on, who does he…**_

"That sounds pretty good."

_**You are hopeless**_ Inner-Sakura whined, facepalming.

"Alright!" Naruto thrusted his hands up in the air like he'd just won the lottery, dancing around, physically unable to contain his excitement. Sakura couldn't help but laugh.

_Tap, tap, tap, tap_

Alien footsteps suddenly became apparent on the rooftop, both Naruto and Sakura's gaze immediately locking onto it.

"Uh, where is he." Sasukes voice finally made his presence known for the first time in what felt like an hour, as the Uchiha boy leaned against the railing, waiting for Kakashi to show up.

"Thanks for helping asshole!" Despite the situation, Naruto had no hesitation in changing his mood from chirpy to angered.

"What…" Sasuke seemed legitimately taken off-guard by his rivals' antagonistic insult, a first since…forever.

"While we were working all day on finding the answers, you sat around like a dork and didn't even **try **to help us."

"I'm under no obligation to help you."

"Last I checked there was no **I'm **in **Team 7**!"

While Naruto's usual insults were easy for Sasuke to dodge and counter, these ones had replaced their usual silliness for complete anger.

He didn't know how to react.

Instead of following up to anything Naruto had said, he instead turned his head with a "hmm", trying to completely ignore his rival's existence.

This is where Naruto saw red. Belittling him was one thing, not acknowledging him on the other hand…

"Hey asshole, I was **talking to** **you!**"

Naruto charged at Sasuke, completely tunnel-vissioned. While initially taken off his guard, Sasuke turned around putting up a guard stance. As Naruto got closer, he threw a kick that seemed prime to take Narutos head off, literally

Sakura gulped as she realized Naruto may actually be decapitated.

Air whisked around Sasukes leg, as it raised upwards into Narutos head. Just as it was about to connect, he saw his opponents' eyes widen, the Uzumaki realizing just how bad a situation he'd gotten into.

_**Bamf!**_

Sasuke felt his momentum stop as a strong hand grabbed his leg, while another one pressed against Naruto's head. Both parties became completely frozen.

"Hmm…fights usually take longer to break out than this. You've truly defied my expectations." Kakashis bored monotone voice invaded what was a formerly tense situation, immediately diffusing it.

Naruto and Sasuke quickly pulled away, both grumbling something as they crossed their arms in unison.

"Well, let's hear the answer then. They better be pretty good if you could spend so much time trying to beat the shit out of one another. Sakura, would you present it…"

"Sure, sensei." She said, voice surprisingly cool despite the fact that the answer she was about to give. "The answer is…instant ramen."

She began to laugh as she said it, although it absolutely did not transfer to Kakashi, who looked at her with an eye filled with a mixture of annoyance and bafflement.

"…Well, not that it needs saying, but that's wrong. We'll begin the second test tomorrow."

Sakura wanted to feel sad, but at least she and Naruto had gotten a laugh out of failing. It softened the blow a bit

"I've got a separate answer." Sasuke spoke up, getting the attention of everyone on the rooftop.

"Yes?"

"…It's poverty." He said, face blank but radiating absolute confidence in the response.

"Correct." Kakashi's tone did not match the words, sounding even more annoyed than he did with Sakuras ramen answer. "Unfortunately, Sasuke, the group has already spoken. You will be joining the others tomorrow."

"But- "He tried to protest but was quickly disarmed by Kakashi once again climbing against the railing.

"Sorry, I don't make the rules."

"You do though-"

It was too late, as Kakashi flickered away, leaving Sasuke talking to essentially a ghost.

He became…frustrated, an attempt to walk it off doing little when presented with the most annoying sound in the world.

"Ahahaha!" Naruto laughed out loud, prompting Sasuke to turn on his heel and give the hyperactive boy a quick glare, before he himself made a descent from the building, heading off towards the Uchiha compound.

A resting silence overtook the flat roof, as Naruto and Sakura both stood in silence. Of course, this wouldn't last for long.

"I think we're going to do really well tomorrow!" The boy yelled, thrusting his fist up into the air triumphantly. Sakura wished she had his confidence.

* * *

The smell of alcohol radiated off a group of boys as they stumbled through the darkness of the forest, speeches slurred. Their clothes were scrappy and worn down, all of them having dropped out of school early in their lives. Not one of them could've been over fifteen.

"Are 'ou sure it's 'p here dude?" One said to the apparent gang leader, the pack moving as one uncoordinated drunk man as opposed to the five there actually were.

"Yeah dude, I saw some…hot bitch up here, drying clothes and shit. Lead me right to a nice, cozy little inn. We brake in there, steal some shit and invest the profits in some more fucking beer!"

Every one present gave a loud "Aye!" of appreciation as they continued on directly to a torch lit pathway, each stick of fire leading to the illuminated cottage.

"Here we go boys." A boy in a red shirt ran in front of the pack and reached for the doorknob, paperclip already fastened and ready to crack the lock open.

A cool sensation overtook the boy's feet, causing collective shivers to jolt around them.

"What the hell?!" One of them drunkenly laughed. "the fuck's doing that?!"

His finger extended to the forest overgrowth, where freezing mist was being pumped outwards at an unnaturally fast rate. Before they had even been able to properly react to it, the mist had completely overtaken the previously night-lit scenery.

"Misu, stop." The leader growled at the lockpicker, smelling a rat.

Silence overtook the group as they tried to figure out what exactly was happening and where the smokescreen was coming from.

"Misu" accidentally pressed against the door, finding that it felt…cold…really cold. Cold and wet.

"Guys…" His eyes widened when he realized the door had been converted completely to ice. Light started to flicker off it intensely, shining brighter and brighter until a small flash radiated from the ice-door.

If Misu had had any cognitive ability left, he would've felt the cut stretching across his face.

"Fucking run!" The pack leader screamed, causing the gang to disperse like a band of rodents.

_**Fwoosh! **_

Another boy went down as a large sword easily cut through the thick mist, some of the fog dispersing around it. The group were currently too occupied with running through the forest to care.

One by one, the mob dwindled.

One boy felt the sharp prickle of the forest trees against his skin to in reality be the blade of a sword. Others were picked off from a distance, the same deadly beam of light darting from various mirrors of ice, efficiently picking off it's target in one attempt. Spilt blood seeped into the navy-blue grass, creating a morbid contrast in the landscape.

Eventually, the only one that remained was the leader, his legs desperately pumping as hard as they could. He could barley feel his bottom half, and his vision was hazy, all he wanted was to get out of the mist.

The bright blasted into his eyes, as he emerged into a forest clearing completely free of the lethal fog. A smirk adorned his features as the feeling of safety once again returned to him.

Leaves cracked.

From the side of his head, he saw a large kunai flying towards him.

He was too worn to dodge.

The metal pierced his skin easily and sent him flying into a nearby tree, hanging him up like a dart.

"_**AAAAH**_. Fuck!" He screamed, clutching at his shoulder as the adrenaline that had previously been sustaining him wore off, letting him feel the complete amount of pain from the stab wound. His breath was ragged but upon hearing heavy footsteps in the distance, it still hitched.

_**Tap, Tap, Tap, Tap…**_

Out from the branch-coated depths, a tall man emerged. His hair was shrot and spiked, the bottom half face covered by a layer of loosely wrapped bandages. His forehead protector was twisted sideways, while his body was covered by a black sleeveless shirt and matching baggy pants. His massive sword was brandished on his back.

The boy's eyes widened as he saw the man approach. Screams built up in his lungs but nothing came out. He was frozen in fear.

"…Safe to say breaking into that house was the worst mistake of your life." The man said, bleakly comedic.

"You're…you're…"

"Zabuza Momoichi. The demon of the mist. Yep." Zabuza introduced himself, unclasping his sword and stabbing it down into the dirt in front of the boy. His tone went from joking to deadly freighting.

"Tell me kid, when you woke up in the morning, what'd you think was gonna' happen?"

The teen couldn't form words, just incomprehensible stutters and even those died down under Zabuza's icy gaze. Those were not the eyes of a man; they were the eyes of a devil.

"Cause to me…you have the eyes of a person who didn't think he was gonna' die today... and I just can't let you get away with that."

Sitting up from his relaxed position, Zabuza retrieved the hulking weapon from the ground and aimed it at his victim.

"P-please…no…dude, stay back!'

_**SLING!**_

A tree fell in the rain village forest that day.


	3. The Ringing Of The Bell

Naruto was empty. Not metaphorically or any bullshit like that, he was literally running empty on food. The boy had been awoken to a small puppy dog leaving a note on his front step that sprawled out the following text:

_**To: Naruto Uzumaki, 22**__**nd**__** Flat on Hamada Street**_

_**Skip breakfast and report to training ground number six at no later than 9:15PM.**_

_**Best wishes, Kakashi Hatake**_.

Naruto had promptly turned around to see that it was 9:00 already, which resulted in what sounded like a miniature explosion going off in his room. Bags were stuffed full of things he didn't know if he needed, sandals were haphazardly thrown on and his door was nearly knocked off his hinges as he went running towards…somewhere.

The cool air was strangely heavy with transpiration. It felt somewhat nice, but Naruto had no chance to take it in, his own raging body heat tearing through the chilly weather.

His vision was blurry at this point. Leaves, leaves and more leaves, that's all he could make out from his running gaze. Slowly but surely, droplets of light sailed past his face like beads of sweat and he felt the friction loosen from his feet. The sashaying leaves finally scattered as he emerged into the forest clearing, where both his teammates were already waiting.

Without even looking up at his rival, he could feel Sasukes demeaning eyes burrowing into him. Just because he was a few minutes late, it gave this guy the right to look at him like he was some weird freak?

"Cutting it close, aren't you Naruto?" Sakuras voice distracted him enough so that his demeanor changed from tense to joking, as his beaming smile returned in full force.

"I was just taking time on my strategy that's all! Kakashi-sensei's not gonna know what hit him!"

_**POOF!**_

The chill of smoke ran down Narutos back half, as a sudden explosion of the substance appeared behind him. Before he could even react, a hand emerged from the field, slapping Naruto in the back of the head and sending him tumbling to the floor in shock.

"…What were you saying?" Kakashi asked the floor-bound boy, smoke dispersing.

"Uh, you asshole!" Naruto yelled back, pushing himself up from the grassy ground, shooting a comical-looking death glare at his teacher.

"Language."

"Whatever! I'll say any swears I want! Asshole, shit…uh…" If this had been a 20-meter dash, Naruto had tripped and fell on the start line.

"Fuck." Kakashi added.

"Yeah, fuck!"

"Language."

"Wait, what?!"

"_**Sensei**_." Sasukes voice pierced through the air of humor like a pin to a balloon. "Can we get on to the actual lesson? "

Kakashi's eyes slumped in boredom, clearly unenthused to do anything resembling his job, letting out a sigh and losing any comicality that clung to his voice.

"Alright, today we will be doing a…survival test." He dug a hand into his pocket and retrieved two small, white painted bells. "You see these bells? They're your objective. If you get a bell off me, you get breakfast and you pass the test, but if I catch you, you will go the rest of the day starving and tied to one of those stumps. To pass this test, you must be willing to kill me so anything goes."

All three felt their stomachs grumble and realized that he'd not asked them to abstain from breakfast for any mobility reasons (Naruto had thought they would be going swimming).

"A timer will be set for noon. If you can't get the bells or I capture you all, you fail the test and will be **sent back to the academy**."

This realization slammed onto the genin like a ton of bricks (despite not being new information). Existential dread began to wash over them, each one picturing themselves being thrust down to the academy. In contrast, Kakashi had care-freely placed his dinky alarm clock down on the floor, quickly snapping a gloved finger in the air to get the trios attention.

"I'll give you thirty seconds to position yourselves."

Sasuke and Sakura wasted little time dashing off into the outstretched forest, body flicker delicate enough to leave little trace for Kakashi to follow.

"1…2….3….4"

Making sure to catch any leaves that she'd left behind her, Sakura looked to her side to see Sasuke expertly ducking through the branches, completely avoiding contact with anything that could leave a trail.

_**He's so cool!**_

Somehow, this inner-echo made her realize the fact that there was no one to the other side of her. Curious, she slid over to the clumpy dirt ground and took shelter in a bush which overlooked the previous clearing, peering through to try and see what Naruto was doing.

_**Eyes on the prize!**_ Inner-Sakura jeered, making her realize it was in her best interest to keep a look on Sasuke so they could coordinate, only to find him nowhere in sight. Normally, she would take time to beat herself up about this, but she was more interested in what was transpiring on the other side of the bush.

"20…21….22…"

Naruto was standing right in front of Kakashi, having done the hide and seek strategy of stomping his feet in the ground to create the illusion of walking away. His fist was clenched backwards, shit-eating grin on display as he prepared for what he considered the smartest strategy devised in ninja history.

"…23…"

Naruto waited.

"…24…"

Naruto waited.

"…25…"

Naruto waited.

"…26…"

Naruto waited

"…27…"

Naruto waited.

"…28…"

Naruto waited.

"…29…"

Naruto waited.

"…30."

Naruto immediately swung his fist at Kakashi's head, the older man not even blinking as he caught the punch and promptly pinned Naruto's hand behind his head, before sweeping out his legs and sending him tumbling to the ground.

Completely dazed, Naruto was efficiently strung up on the wooden stump, stars circling around his head like a halo.

"_**uhhhh**_…Hey Kakashi-sensei, you coward, face me one more time!" His newly-recovered voice blew through the foods, although being easily silenced by a single finger from Kakashi.

"Nope, don't think I will."

Kakashi quickly body flickered away, leaving Naruto completely alone in the open clearing. No other people, no wildlife, no sounds, just him and the small river that ran along the training ground.

Naruto's face drooped downwards. Something had gone wrong with his plan; he just couldn't put a finger on _what_…

* * *

Kakashi's presence anywhere was made readily apparent by the chattering bells on his belt. Due to this, he had little hope of getting the jump on either of the genin still left in the wild. Each footstep was accompanied by a jingle, as he strode through the forest lazily, hands in pockets.

The sound of wind slicing through the air sent Kakashi's mind racing in the miniscule time frame he had to figure out where it was coming from. His one exposed method of vision surveyed the scene, squinting at a small refraction of light from the corner of his eye.

Two shuriken brushed through the air; lethal force put behind them, only for Kakashi's hand to quickly shoot out and send them spinning on his fingertips.

More leaves rustled from behind him, the sounds surprisingly light considering what emerged. Kakashi turned on his heel to face a charging Sasuke running at him unarmed. Closer and closer the boy got, intensity in his eyes meaning nothing to the man in front of him.

Sasuke leapt up in the air and brought his leg up, preparing a kick.

Kakashi still didn't move.

With intensity, the genin completed his attack and threw down the savage kick…only for it to completely phase through Kakashi, as the teacher had expected. "Sasuke" promptly disappeared in a puff of smoke.

"…I've seen worse clone jutsus." Kakashi offered a backhanded compliment to no one (or so he thought)

Leaves once again swished from behind him, Kakashi turning around to face a kunai knife being thrown at him.

_**FWOOSH!**_

Out of nowhere, another Sasuke appeared, his fluid movements indicating that this was in fact the real one. He outstretched his hand at Kakashi's belt, fingers centering on the bells.

Time slowed down for Kakashi, his strategic mind running at a mile a minute to try and figure out what he could do here. Different plans of action stacked up in his brain, faster than Sasuke or the kunai could even move in real time.

He could jump up into the air and use his foot to kick Sasuke, while grabbing the kunai out of the air? No, Sasuke was too low on the ground and at that point he'd grab the bells even if the kick landed.

He could simply take the kunai to the back? Nope, he'd rather give up the bell than have to feel a stab wound in the morning.

The only solution that ended up with him both keeping the bell and not getting stabbed was risky and required absolute trust in Sasuke's instincts of how not to get himself killed. He snapped back to real time, eye flashing towards the kunai and extending an arm to catch it.

As soon as the cold metal met his hand, he thrust it towards Sasuke, in a move that was completely intended to be fatal. The Uchiha's eyes broadened as he saw the knife move closer to his head.

He shifted his whole body in an unexpected spiral, latching himself onto Kakashis arm and using the teachers forward momentum to send him flying forwards, which Kakashi snappily pivoted into a cartwheel, throwing the kunai at Sasuke as soon as his feet hit the floor.

The knife flew through the air, cutting through the breeze around it as it launched for Sasuke's head.

_**Clang!**_

It embedded itself in the dirt just behind its target.

The fact that he had just come and inch away from death did little to phase Sasuke, as he quickly came back to his feet, clutching his hands together and blowing through hand signs quickly.

For the first time since Sasuke had met him, a flash of surprise filled Kakashis eye. He attempted to retreat but it was too late. The fact that a fresh-out-of-the academy genin would know this technique had not even crossed his mind.

"_**Fire Release: Phoenix Flower Jutsu!**_" Sasuke yelled, breathing out a barrage of fire balls, each one hitting the ground and causing small amount of sizzling smoke to erupt from it.

_Fire release? But the amount of chakra for that…_ Kakashi didn't have time to finish his thought, before another flaming assault rained down on him. He looked backwards, urgently trying to see through the smoke screen that was forming.

No room to dodge, no room to attack. Sasuke's phoenix flower barrage meant he had no way of trying to close the distance. Defensive strategy was the only option. Facing down a sizzling bolt of flame, Kakashi started to go through his hand seals. He felt sweat start to pour down his face at a quickened pace but his mind was more focused on completing his hand signs then anything else.

_**BOOM!**_

Sasuke and Kakashis battleground had been completely overrun with smoke, the substance making it nearly impossible for either to see. Any overseers of the forest would've been able to spot smoke pouring from treetops like a chimney, as the sky naturally weaned out all the residual gas.

What was left in the clearing was no Sasuke and a rough, mid-sized ball of pure rock. The crumbly outer bits of the earth cocoon started to crumble, as a gloved hand shot out of it, fingers twitching.

Lacking the structural integrity to stay solid, half of the rocky globe cracked open, revealing a cooped-up Kakashi gasping for breath. He scanned the scene for any signs of Sasuke, but it came up negative.

Taking time to let air flow resume normally, his eye became…angered.

_Maybe I'll have to take these kids a little more seriously. _

* * *

"Chirp, chirp, chirp, chirp…ayyaya!" Naruto screamed out, his animal noises serving as a ridiculous attempt to try and attract the bird had landed on a near-by tree. It simply turned its head peculiarly at the boy's ridiculous display.

"Chirp, chirp…come rip up these ropes! Or if you're a woodpecker you can peck through the tree…nah, that's dumb. **Chirp, chirp!**"

The bird turned on its small little legs and flew away, igniting Naruto's blazing fury.

"HEY COME BACK HERE YOU ASSHOLE! I'M GONNA' BE THE HOKAGE SOME DAY AND YOU AND ALL YOUR BIRD BUDDIES ARE GONNA REGRET IT! _**HOKAGE NARUTO DECLARES OPEN SEASON ON BIRDS!**_"

* * *

Sandals crashed against the tree branches, as Sasuke desperately retreated from his fight, slightly winded by the action that he'd been through. Like a bad migraine, voices of frustration rippled through his mind.

_Damn it! I had one chance to get those bells while he was underestimating us and I blew it! DAMN IT, DAMN IT, DAMN IT!_

Seeing a particularly puffed up tree on the horizon, he decided a regroup was in order as he leapt out at the cloud of leaves, charging through the branches with little collateral to the tree and no injuries save a minor scratch on his knees.

However, instead of finding the dark hideaway he expected, he was greeted by a small torchlight and Sakura sitting in the corner, legs curled up. Fragrant drops of amber-colored sap bled from the leaves, visibly coating the girls fingers.

"_**Aah!**_" She let out a small scream at his intrusion, thrusting out a kunai only for her nerves to settle at the realization that it was Sasuke…and then for her nerves to shoot back up at the realization that it was Sasuke.

"Sakura…what are you doing in here?" Sasuke asked with slight confusion.

"…Strategizing." She blurted out, half-telling the truth.

"Okay." Sasuke replied, taking a seat that was as far away as hers as it could be.

Neither of them made eye contact, Sakura out of nervousness and Sasuke out of apparent boredom. One minute turned to two, two minutes turned to three, three to five, the lapse of time didn't stop its insurmountable attack until Sasuke finally said…

"I'm gonna' leave."

"Okay."

So he did.

Silence filled the treetop clearing, Sakura making sure he was gone before she pumped her fist in the air and screamed inwardly.

_**And that's the kind of interactions you only get from Team 7! Take that Ino!**_

* * *

"_Ugggh…ugghh_…" Naruto attempted to push himself up with no luck, the tight ropes minimizing any chance of an escape. The futility became obvious to even the thick-headed ninja, as he let out a sigh of resignation.

_**SWOOSH!**_

Leaves rustled to the back of him, although Naruto was powerless to turn around and see it (something he didn't realize as he started to brush up against the ropes like a dog to a leash. Somehow, he managed to use his bodies friction to pivot his head slightly to the left, giving him a decent view of the forest surrounding his stump.

He saw Sasuke crouched down in a bush.

"Hey! Stop moping around dickhair, and go after him."

"It's called waiting dumbass, something that you clearly don't know about considering you're currently unable to even move your arms." Sasuke glared at the side of Naruto's head, eyes flickering with annoyance. "Now, could you quiet down. If he catches me, you fail as well."

Naruto begrudgingly shut up, understanding that this was true. His lips folded up in a frustrated pout which would normally be accompanied by him crossing his arms which was clearly not an option here.

_Stupid Sasuke, I just wanna scream and shout and tell Kakashi-sensei he's here! That'd show him…wait…_

"Sasuke?" Naruto finally said, breaking a silence in conversation.

"What?"

"I've got an idea."

"…Which is?"

"You'll see…just go on the count of three, okay?"

Sasuke had no idea what "go on three" meant in this context and was about to voice his protests, when he heard the undeniably convincing sound of Naruto screaming at the top of his lungs.

"_KAKASHI-SENSEI, HELP! _THERE'S A SPIDER ON THE WOOD AND IT'S GETTING CLOSE TO ME, _**HEEEEEEEEEEEEEELP!**_"

In under 10 seconds, Kakashi arrived in front of the stump-lodged boy, clearly disappointed.

"Okay, okay, where is it?"

"Around the foot." Naruto basically sobbed, sounding like he'd just been assaulted.

Kakashi crouched himself downwards and scanned the crevasses of the bark for any creatures. An initial run through brought little results, so he squinted, trying to improve his view. This attention to finding the spider meant he was not focused on Naruto, who stuck his hand out around the tree stump, motioning his fingers at Sasuke.

Three fingers.

Two fingers.

One finger.

Go.

Sasuke shot out of the bushes, arm outstretched for the bells that dangled off Kakashi. He felt his fingers graze the metal, almost ready to properly get a grip on the at lest one of the bells, but the euphoric sensation was soon replaced with pain, as a knee was raised up to his gut.

The Uchiha boy was sent flying backwards onto the open training ground, quickly recovering back up to his legs.

"Credit were credit is due. That was decently coordinated." Kakashi mused, clearly feeling no fear as he planted his raised leg back onto the ground, one hand still in his pockets.

Dread started to swim around Sasukes gut as he realized he was completely out-matched in a pure 1 vs 1 situation. Kakashi's gaze reaffirmed this belief, vision looking lethal as the older man clutching his palms together in a hand sign, quickly shifting through different forms befo-

_**BAM!**_

Kakashi felt his head throb. It felt like he'd just been hit over the head with a metal weight of some kind. His knees buckled and he ended up seated on the ground, which gave Sasuke more than enough time to retreat to the surrounding woodland. One thought pulsated through his mind:

_Maybe…he's not such a moron after all. _

Cursing himself as he realized he'd just let the biggest threat in the squad get away, Kakashi turned around to see Naruto clutching his own head, smirking.

"HAHA! Bet you didn't expect that Kakashi-sensei! I totally got you."

Kakashi simply starred back at him, before quickly attaching another rope to the top of Narutos head, leaving the boy with absolutely no automation aside from the waste up, which turned the Uzumaki's smirk into a frown.

Paying little mind to the restrained target, Kakashi rushed after Sasuke, general tone surprisingly calm despite having been tested by children. Upon opening up into the forest, Kakashi immediately found footsteps implanted in the dirt and leaves.

_He's getting sloppy. _

Indeed he was, as Sasuke was far more concerned with simply making distance from Kakashi than masking any getaway attempts. Unfortunately for him, the speed difference between the two was far greater than he'd estimated, Kakashis footsteps already being audible on the horizon.

Thinking quickly, Sasuke leapt off a tree branch and twisted his body in mid-air, reaching into his pocket for a kunai knife, only for his hand to completely brush through the previously filled weapons pouch.

_What?!_

* * *

Cold metal clinked as Naruto grasped the knife in-between his feet. Sasuke hadn't even seen it coming!

Now came the difficult part…

He measured the weight of the weapon as delicately as he could without any vision or real control of it, praying that he could manage to toss it up to his slightly exposed hands. With two quick practice kicks, he eventually threw it up upwards with his feet…

And immediately he realized he'd overshoot it. For a second, Naruto was sure that he'd essentially killed himself, mind constantly playing and re-playing the humiliating image of the rest of his team returning to find him stabbed in the face by accident.

_**SHINKT!**_

The knife imbedded itself into the tree stump, **just **above Narutos head.

The boys thought process began to whirr into a dripple down of euphoria.

The kunai was up there. The kunai was not in his face. His face was fine. He was fine. He was not dead!

Then Naruto quickly realized that while he may not have been dead, he was still tied up to a tree stump and ready to fail the most important test of his life.

"Uh, give me a break…" He whined, brain being too worn out to muster the shouting he desperately wanted to do.

* * *

_What?! That idiot must've stolen my kunai!_

Before Sasuke could even blink, the light above him distorted and Kakashi appeared in front of him, thrusting his elbow down towards the Uchiha's stomach. Sasuke braced, only for the attack to phase right through him.

_A clone!_

The real intention of this illusion was to keep Sasuke from making a quick aerial recovery, something that (quite literally) hit the boy like a ton of bricks as he felt the real Kakashi's knee bash into his back.

Dirt was sent up from the forest floor, as Sasukes lean form spun around like a Beyblade. He stopped his momentum with an extension of his knee, taking a minute to catch his breath, eyes glaring with anger at the teacher that stood before him. This had no longer become a fight or flight situation, it was fight or fight situation.

Sasuke's mind desperately racked itself, trying to think of a strategy. He observed the seemingly statue-like Kakashi for any cracks or openings he could exploit. His eyes scanned everything, including looking into his eye.

This proved to be a mistake. Whether it was something about the emotional "back-against-the-wall" feeling or the expression in it, the eye sent shivers through Sasuke. _He felt…weak, he couldn't do anything, the whole world was dark, bodies at the floor, red eyes peered back at him evilly, blood adorning the invaders sword. _

"**Ahem**." Kakashis through clearing brought Sasuke's sight back to the present, proving that his vision was a product of his own fear and not some illusory jutsu. "I have a commitment at five, so are we going to stand here all day or what?"

The self-illusion may have subsided but Sasukes lingering fury didn't. His eyes became filled with apparent murderous intent, so much so that it completely overrode any reason in his mind.

"_You bastard!_" Sasuke screamed, running towards Kakashi with the nonsensical idea of attempting to brute force overwhelm him.

Instead of any taught martial arts or strategic combat moves, the Uchiha opted to try and deck Kakashi in the face. In his brain, he expected to punch his teacher hard enough to break his nose. What he **did not** expect a sudden explosion of smoke, and the sudden blow back of wood on his fist.

Sasuke had fallen for a substitution jutsu. A technique that was (quite literally according to some shinobi literature) the oldest trick in the book.

_**Crack!**_

The heel of Kakashis foot crashed into the side of Sasukes face. Any more accurate and the boy would have lost an eye. The older man pounced on this opening, quickly delivering an axe kick to the back of Sasukes head, which had become exposed thanks to his previous attack.

Sasuke fell to the ground, each part of his face pulsating with pain. Dirt was thrown up into the air, as the heel of Kakashis foot brushed through the muck like he was performing an interpretive dance.

The younger boy barley moved his head in time to avoid a concussion, backflipping away to try and create distance. This may have been a viable strategy before, but against an even-slightly motivated Kakashi, it was a death wish

Before he could even complete a rotation, Kakashis elbow drilled into his stomach, the older man quickly following it up with a sharp hook kick that Sasuke managed to weave through.

_He's using Uchiha-style kickboxing. That means the next attack…_

Sasuke ducked his head, fully expecting to duck another kick, only for Kakashis knee to connect with the underside of his chin.

_**Swoosh!**_

The boy threw his own upwards kick, putting so much momentum behind the attack that he may as well have backflipped. Kakashi simply countered it with a palm, both blocking the kick and helping Sasuke complete his rotation.

_**WHACK!**_

As soon as he felt his face rise back up to normal, Kakashi threw a light palm strike into his face, the sheer unexpectedness of the attack sending Sasuke recoiling.

_That's…Hyuga style…just who the hell is this guy?!_

In contrast to his previously crisp strikes, Kakashi's current battle style resembled more of a performance art, as he outstretched both of his arms, one behind his back and one towards Sasuke, his stance radiating defensive stability.

While he was absolutely confused at Kakashi's melting pot of cultural fighting styles, he recognized a break when he saw it. Slowly, he unhitched his breathing which were previously sharp and raggedy, and began to experiment.

_**FwooshFwoosh!**_

Quickly, he threw out two kicks, both of them cracking the surrounding wind with their speed. Kakashi easily blocked them, pushing off the attacks like he was passing through a heavily-crowded walkway.

Peacefully, he retracted one of his arms and pushed out his leg in a sweeping formation, which Sasuke had expected, jumping up in the air.

_**BAM!**_

The back of Kakashis fist slammed into Sasukes face before the Uchiha even touched the ground, the man's fist clubbing against his nose like a sledgehammer. The previously retracted arm was pushed behind his back, as Kakashi assumed a more traditional martial arts stance.

Wiping the drips of blood from his face, Sasuke charged Kakashi once again, ducking a second hammer fist. Kakashis other arm shot out in an attempt at a punch but it was countered by Sasuke's crisp kick.

This small victory turned into a major defeat, as the boy suddenly felt the same hands he'd just seemingly bested grab him around the stomach and toss him back-first over Kakashis head. Sasuke crashed into the leave adorned dirt like a bomb, sending chunks of the ground flying everywhere.

He felt his muscles ache and his limbs nearly give out on him as he ran back towards Kakashi, once again lacking any strategy whatsoever, nearly tripping over his on feet as he sluggishly attempted a punch.

Easily caught, Sasuke felt his arm be slung around his head, the limb nearly breaking under pressure. His eyes widened as the silent intensity radiating from Kakashi pressed into him like needles.

"_Konoha Secret Technique:_" The teacher harshly whispered; words coated in lethality. "_**ONE THOUSAND YEARS OF DEATH**_"

Sasukes heart stopped at the ominous sounding jutsu, at beast expecting several bones to be broken. He felt a small blockage towards his feet turn his legs to jelly, his balance hanging on by a thread.

_**Wack!**_

Kakashi gently slapped him over the head with the force of a light breeze, providing the push Sasuke needed to completely tumble over himself and fall to the floor in humiliating fashion.

The silence that hung in the air said more than any quip or taunt from Kakashi ever could. The apathetic quiet only fanned the flames of Sasukes anger, as the boy stood up and began to smash his hands into signs.

What caught Kakashi's eye however, was a long rope of leaves that began to descend from the treetops above, obviously directed at the man's belt. Initially confused as to what purpose the nature-made leave string was held, Kakashi felt his breath hitch as small rays of sunlight glimmered off the sticky sap that had been painted onto the final leaf.

He reached into his pocket for a kunai, only to come up empty, the motion only gifting him wasted time. The cord bounced through the air, coming **inches **away from the bells, with no apparent time for Kakashi to stop it.

"_Fire release: Fire Ball jutsu!" _

All attention was diverted back to Sasuke or, more accurately, the surging fire that he'd just breathed out. Muscle memory kicked in, and Kakashi instantly body flickered away from the roaring ball of flame, which ended up only burning through the leaf chain instead of any actual target it had.

The fire ball traveled for a short distance before folding in on itself and dispersing into a small stream of smog, which traveled upwards, into the miniature biome of wood and leaves that made up the treetops.

Sakura's eyes curled up, put off by the burning air of the smoke, so much so that she seemingly didn't notice the man who had parked himself behind her.

"This is…surprisingly impressive Sakura. I can't say I pegged you as any kind of strategist."

"_**Eek**_!" She nervously turned around at Kakashis intrusion, expression not even attempting to hide her surprise.

"Unfortunately, there's one thing you forgot…"

_**THAT MORON! **_Inner-Sakura was howling with laughter. _**He fell for a clone jutsu! Everything's going according to plan!**_

The real Sakura was busy trying to quench her nerves, as she clutched a kunai to her hip. She felt her sandals press down on the surprisingly sturdy leaves that made up the woodland canopies, as her pale green eyes rested on Kakashi.

Breathes disjointed, she rushed at him, eyes half shut and half focused on the bells.

"…clones don't have shadows." He said, context initially cracking through Sakura almost as hard as the kick that followed. Sent spiraling to the ground, the leaf backing of the treetops gave and the pinkette's hair became dressed with green as she slunk through down to the depths of the forest.

The now pastel-like scenery of pinks and jade were soon joined by a swirling twist of orange, as Sasuke injected more fire into the air, aim squarely locked on Kakashi.

"Wind release: vacuum zone sphere!" The jonin yelled back, thrusting an open hand out, strong gusts of wind discharging from his palm. True to its name, the wall of air vacuumed up the storm of fire, compressing it downwards into an orb small enough to fit into the palm of Kakashis hand.

His shaky hand thrusted it back, causing the sphere to unfurl like before, only this time, the flaming bullets were sent back at Sasuke, who instinctively flipped away. The beautiful shells of fire smashed into the ground, giving rise to another rise of smoke.

Sakuras eyes blinked twice. Once to realize she wasn't dead and another to realize she was laying on her back. Growling slightly in pain, she sat up, hand resting on her back as she looked towards the tree she'd previously taken shelter in.

Her teal eyes darted back towards the smoke that was rising through the forest, squinting as the natural light became further blurred. Downsizing in scale yet again, her gaze returned to her hand, which she lifted off the dirt to find no shadow.

_The lights…gone_.

Immediately, a plan was pieced together in her mind.

"_**Sasuke**_! More of that please!" She screamed, motioning to the steam that was radiating off the burnt, bitter dirt.

Sasuke, while perplexed, complied, unloading another phoenix fire barrage upon the dirt, sending an ungodly amount of smoke sizzling up through the mass of forest. Thinking fast, Sasuke began to speed away from the area, Kakashi being unable to keep a hold on him now that everyone was essentially half blind.

Speaking of which, sensing the having the high ground in a situation where he couldn't see both of his opponents was a bad move, Kakashi slowly began his descent onto solid ground, more focus put on his hearing than his sight as he tossed down a rope, ignoring any flashes of pink he saw. She'd learnt well, clones had now become unidentifiable.

Tentatively, he began to shimmy down the rough rope, nerves going nearly numb with focus.

_**CLING!**_

A shruiken was thrown at Kakashi, each blade shimmering light muted by the smokescreen and making it hard to see. However, the sound of it flying through the air was all Kakashi needed to catch and redirect it, breathing a sigh of relief as he heard it embed itself in wood.

Estimating how far he was up in comparison to the ground, Kakashi took an estimated risk and dropped off the rope, beginning to free fall, back towards the ground to cover his wider vulnerability above him.

_**Fwoosh!**_

Smoke broke underneath him, as Sasuke emerged, reaching upwards for the bell…only to come up empty as both had been unhooked from the older man's belt and were now resided in the palm of Kakashis hand.

Immediately savvy to the genins plan, Kakashi threw the bells high up in the air, hoping Sasuke would take the bait. Despite seeing the obvious ploy from a mile away, he did just that, planning to redirect himself upwards off a nearby tree.

His sandals cracked the slightly scorched wood, as pressure was applied to the bark…only for the Uchiha to feel himself phasing through the wood. His gravity halted and he feel face first into a bed of leaves.

Rushing back up to his feet, he looked down to see Kakashi descending from the rope, facing upwards. The surroundings had shifted and he was back on the tree tops.

_That means…genjutsu_!

A bolt of fear ran down his spine as he realized he'd spent too much time thinking up an explanation, when Kakashi had already reached the ground.

The masked jonin placed a flat palm to the dirt, analyzing any vantage points he could be attacked from before letting out a cry of "Wind release: uprooting tempest."

A pillar of wind erupted from the ground, blowing Sasuke away to the sides, and excavating all the residual smoke from the area. Sunlight once again flickered through the forestland, as the sky became slightly booged by the fleeting cloud of muck that had just been expelled.

More wind started to blow, causing Kakashi to whip around in preparation for another shuriken or kunai attack, only to find that his wind jutsu had sent a massive bunch of leaves scattering around him.

Looking up, he found Sakura standing by the wreckage of a tree, smiling. Looking closer, he saw her mouth…counting down?

"…Five…four…"

His eyes began to roll around like marbles, trying to get a view on any sign of a weapon, until a badly-contrasting piece of white caught his eye…as well as another and another and another and _another_.

Taking a closer look at the storm of leaves that had surrounded him, he noticed each individual leave had a scrap of white attached to it. His gaze broadened when he saw the black ink dried on those scraps of white, one word _exploding _into his mind…

_Explosive tags!_

"…Three…two…"

Kakashi wasted no time in clapping his hands together, shifting signs as fast as humanely possible. He wasn't even sure what jutsu he was going to use; he just knew that he didn't want to get caught in the oncoming detonation.

"…one…_**got ya!**_"

Each leaf caught fire, emerald mixing with amber in a twisting squall of destruction. It would've been pretty if it wasn't about to explode. Each tag sent ripples through the air, before the waves of space caught fire, igniting completely.

_**BANG!**_

…_**.**_

…_**.**_

_**BANG!**_

_**BANG!**_

Naruto threw his head back against the stump, desperate to try and dislodge the kunai that peaked over the top of him. He felt the clinks of the knife as it cracked in the wood.

"_Come on, come on…_"

_**BANG!**_

_**BANG!**_

Finally, after one last triumphant head bash, the weapon was extricated from the stump, falling directly into whatever was exposed of Narutos hand. Smiling to himself, he began to saw through the thick rope, eyes strictly aimed downwards before a ringing began to enter his ears, accompanied by the smell of burnt dirt.

"Ew, what the…"

His eyes followed the scent to find the top of an explosion erupting from the forest, flecks of burning flame bling tossed across the top of the treetops. Leaves in the surrounding area were singed from the outbreak of sparks, creating a spectacular colour gradient of orange, green and black.

"…_._ holy shit."

Dusk tinged smoke began to fly up the residual area, flooding the skies of Konoha with murky darkness.

"_ACK!_"

Sakura exhaled quickly upon snapping back to reality, eyes tinted with red from the heat of the explosion and smoke. Upon realizing she was in great pain, Sakura's brain let out a small dopamine rush of happiness at not being dead, followed by realizing that she was alive and **in great pain**.

Painfully, she craned her neck to the side, coming face-to-face with Sasuke, who was clearly in a similar position to her own. She would've let out a shriek of surprise, if her lungs didn't feel like they were on fire.

"How are you doing." She managed to rasp out.

"…Fine." Sasuke replied, evidently lying from how his face became pained from talking. "How about you?"

"Everything hurts."

The weirdly normal conversation between the two of them was cut off as a small stone slowly rolled towards them, eventually hitting a dull stop. Both of their eyes traced the pebble upwards, finding a tall stone pillar imbedded in the dirt.

Up and up they looked (this action being surprisingly difficult considering the pain they were both in) before their vision reached the top, resting on the sight of Kakashi, not a scratch on him.

"Yo."

* * *

Sakura and Sasuke were promptly placed next to Naruto on the logs (only they were simply leaned against them, due to the fact they were only just starting to regain movement), while Kakashi leaned against the stump that the timer had been placed on.

"I can't say I'm not impressed…" His voice was surprisingly upbeat but this positivity was too short lived to give any one of them even the slightest glimmer of hope. "But I also can't say I'm not dissatisfied."

His visible eye slanted somewhere between laziness and apathy. "Sakura, I had you pegged as dead weight and while you certainly defied those expectations, I'm curious on what your thought process was in trying to capture a bell by becoming a suicide bomber."

She had no answer except for a meek "Sorry Kakashi-sensei."

"Sasuke, while you initially seemed exceptional, you cost your team the biggest opportunity at a wain they had by blowing away the leaf rope. There were slight shimmers of coordination, but you were a well-trained hindrance more than anything."

"Haha!" Naruto laughed at the criticism his rival received, with a bellow that would've been accompanied by a point of his arm if he could free them.

"**Naruto**." Kakashis voice switched from apathetic to angered, as he switched his focus to the restrained boy. "You attempted to punch me in the face in the first three seconds and did barley anything of note for the rest of the test. If I was grading you, you'd get a Z…for zero."

Naruto's eyes were squarely fixated on his feet at this point.

"And that's why, and I take no pleasure in saying this…team seven officially…" Kakashis words loomed in the air, sending visions of humiliation through the genin.

_Naruto was on the swing once again, pushing it along by himself. _

_Sakura's mother had come home furious, rushing into her daughters' room and tearing her a new one. _

_Sasuke's parents shook their heads in pure disappointment...they were quickly struck down._

What the trio eventually noticed however, was that while they'd taken the time to think up their worst-case scenario, Kakashi hadn't given his verdict. In fact, from his expression and pause, it was almost like he was biting his tongue.

"…you know what, I'll give you one last chance. Two more hours to take the bells off me, how's that sound."

All threes eyes lit up on various levels of the brightness spectrum.

"Yes, t-thank you sensei!" Sakura spoke first, managing to put to bed her nightmare, at least for a little while.

"And, to renew your strength, here's breakfast or, more accurately, lunch!" His tone was cheery. Sasuke recognized it was too cherry, and these beliefs were confirmed when Kakashi pulled out **two **bento boxes.

"Sasuke…here's yours and Sakura…here's yours." He said, passing them to the pair. "Eat up quickly."

"Hey, what about mine!" Naruto yelled out in anger, eyes demanding answers to which Kakashi provided with a masked but obvious smile.

"Well, do you really need to renew any strength? After all, you spent the entire test tied up to a post."

"…but that's not fair Kakashi-sensei!" Naruto was surprised as Sakura came to his defense, clearly angered. "That's not even how the human appetite works!"

"Sure it is." Kakashi brushed off her complaints like it was dust on his vest, standing up straight and beginning to walk away, only to remember the one last thing he wanted to say. "Oh, and if you share any food with Naruto, _**you fail**_."

"WHAT?! THIS IS AN OUTRAGE! 'TABBAYO!" The boy in question yelled, his plan to annoy Sasuke into giving him some of his potatoes already dashed before he could get it started.

"I'll be back in ten minutes, take care." Kakashi said, flickering away before anyone could protest further.

Almost immediately, the smell of the two bentos aside from him became intoxicating to Naruto, his eyes appearing strangely sleepy. Sakura flashed him an apologetic look, but she couldn't help herself from digging into the full meal that was laid out in the plastic container. It was lucky he couldn't reach out and grab one due to the restraints on his arms.

_**Fwoosh!**_

Without even a look in his target's direction, Sasuke held the box of food up to Narutos face, the intense, mixed aroma of the bento causing the Uzumaki to become somewhat angered.

"Hey, what the hell do you think you're doing?!" He yelled, interpreting the gesture as some sort of taunt on Sasukes part.

"Just eat."

"…Are you kidding?! You heard what he said, we'll fail if I do!"

"He's right Sasuke!" Sakura chipped in, eyes flashing a look of confusion and concern.

"I know, but…we already tried our hardest to get the bells of him with just us two and we lost. Doing the same thing with the idiot on an empty stomach will just give us the same result." Sasuke closed his eyes and breathed in, clearly slightly disgusted by what he was about to say. "As much as I hate to say it…he's the only unknown variable."

Both of the other shinobi sat there, slightly shocked by the interpersonal analysis that didn't usually stem from Sasukes tone. Without warning, he stealthily cut Narutos arms loose, causing the Uzumaki to instinctively grab hold of the treasure trove of food.

"Sakura, we'll share one. He won't know the difference."

She nodded in agreement, scooching over to the front of the stump so she and Sasuke could share the remaining bento better. Naruto in the meanwhile, had about two seconds of hesitation, before digging his hand into the array of rice and curry, and yanking it out like a savage.

His eyes widened in ecstasy, the fragrant flavors that were emitted from his hand were almost enough to trick his brain into thinking he'd eaten. Almost. Closer and closer his hand got to his mouth…_closer and closer_.

_**Plop**_.

The hand-formed mush of curry and rice dropped into his mouth with a triumphant slurping sound, tasting exactly as good as it would if you'd gone nearly a day without food. However, this small clump of rice apparently had big geological consequences, as the clouds around the trio began to darken and the winds began to hasten, stinging cold sensations from it feeling like it was burning their skin

Lighting cracked through the darkness, before a low voice hummed out.

"I'm disappointed. _**Very disappointed.**_" Kakashi's voice boomed out from the abyss, any clouds that had sunk to ground level fluffed over around him. His exposed eye shone with anger, slanted so far inward the genin could barley see it, even if their vision hadn't started to blur from shock and surprise.

"K-Kakashi-sensei?!" Sakura looked on the verge of tears as she spoke, tone choked with surprise. Sasuke said nothing, bur his feeble attempts to project a blank slate on his features was completely see-through.

"I gave you _**one instruction**_ and you couldn't even follow that." His voice was harrowing in its hostility, never had the three ninja present heard a voice so quiet, yet so filled with rage. "This is why, I no longer have any hesitation in saying team seven has officially… "

"I stole the food!" Naruto completely derailed whatever Kakashi was about to say with an outburst. All fury seemed to fade slightly from Kakashis voice, even the dark skies seemed to revert back to their sunlight-riddled ways.

"…What?"

"I was so hungry, I tried to get Sasuke to give me some food and when he didn't, I grabbed it out of his hands and started eating! If you're gonna' fail us, just send me back to the academy and let them stay as genin." Naruto solemnly said, voice cracking slightly in sadness.

Kakashi briefly analyzed the situation, having been taken slightly off guard, before his former anger returned.

"Okay, fine then, I will."

"No Kakashi-Sensei!" Sakura's yelled; her expressions previous sorrow having been replaced by defiance. "If…if…if you send him back to the academy, you have to send me back as well!"

This display of teamwork once again caused Kakashis rage to be transferred into curiosity. Unfurling his eye, he titled his head at Sasuke who responded by taking a long look of contemplation at the other two before he turned back to Kakashi.

"I'd probably have to go back to the academy with them anyway, so you'll…have to send me back too, I guess."

The (admittedly tepid) display of unity was all Kakashi needed to softly sit down, beginning to laugh.

"…Hey, what's so funny?!" Naruto shouted, waving a slightly restrained arm at the man.

"You figured it out." He said back, eye gently shut.

"Huh?" Naruto said what the other two were thinking.

"Those who break the rules are scum, but those who abandon their comrades are far worse than scum. **Team**work is the core of a **team**. You displayed teamwork, and because of that, you passed the real test."

Silence overtook all three of them, before their fountain of despair and rebelliousness turned into a party platter of smiles, however slight.

"…WE DID IT!" Naruto screamed, as Kakashi cut him down from the stump. His voice echoed victory throughout both Sakura and Sasuke as they stood up, finally letting their joints and brains relax for the first time since Kakashi announced they would be taking the survival test.

Their collective chatter merged together in Kakashis mind, as the sounds of the three washed over a wave of something deep, maybe…nostalgia?

"_Haha! We did it! We passed!" A boy shouted, his bulky orange goggles reflecting the light from the forest. _

_Kakashi couldn't react in time as the boy sandwiched him in a hug, quickly turning to the girl next to him and doing the same to her. _

Light suddenly faded and his eyes raised up in a blink. Where he and two others were situated was now occupied by Team 7 as Sasuke made a desperate attempt to keep Naruto off him.

Yes. It was definitely nostalgia.


	4. Depature To The Land Of Waves

Two pairs of feet scurried through the early-morning streets, kicking up dust as they walked. Sakura had never been out this early, so she couldn't help but let her eyes rest on the scenic and deathly quiet Konoha.

"Sakura, come on! We've only got an hour!" Perpetual-street urchin Naruto Uzumaki did not have the same appreciation for the barley sunlit streets, face swirling up with impatience.

"Oh, uh, okay." She began to follow him, focus still somewhat fixated on the suns caped city. She stayed in this trance until the bell of a convenience store door rung through the air, the cold wind from outside being replaced with the average conditions imposed by the inside of store.

"Hello, we only take cash, no vouchers." A man said robotically from behind the counter, eyes deep into a magazine. He looked…sickly. If it hadn't been for his regular tone of voice, Sakura would've thought he was about keel over and die right then and there.

It was Team 7's first mission. Well first **proper **mission, as Naruto put it. They'd spent the past few weeks tracking down lost hamsters and doing what was essentially community service at the senior center, where they had promptly gotten banned because Naruto had turned up the heating so high, he'd almost ended up killing half the residents (Kakashi had described it as "a few steps away from the sixth largest mass slaughter in Konoha history")

Now, they had been set on an escort mission to the land of waves, the pair of genin currently picking snackfood for the journey ahead.

"Hmmm…this one or…" Naruto held up two packets of instant ramen, one pork and one chicken. He had 700 ryo with him and each ramen pack cost 128 ryo, so…

Throwing the chicken packet down, Naruto scoped up a row's worth of the pork ramen, almost dropping them out of his arms as he stumbled around to the counter. The worker barley looked up from his magazine as five packs of ramen were placed onto the counter (which doubled as a scale)

Sakura quickly added her own stockpile consisting of six cans of drink and two large bags of crisps.

"That'll be however much it says on the little thing there." The worker mumbled, more interested in his magazine but even then, his focus on anything was menial. It said a lot that Naruto and Sakura actually deposited the money onto the table, instead of simply running off with the food.

The bell dinged again, as the door flung open and Sakura once again became transfixed by the shadowy, sun-tinged streets.

"Hey, what's up with you? Is there something in the air or whatever?" Naruto asked, folding his grocery bag in the meanwhile.

"No, it's just… I've never seen it this quiet before." She replied, eyes stilted in amazement.

"You get used to it." The Uzumaki said, quickly crawling up the side of a building, his footsteps on the brick prompting Sakura to once again snap out of her daze and follow him to the rooftops.

"How many times have you seen it like this?"

"Like, every day." He answered, the two of them beginning to make their way through the Konoha skyline, sun rising in the distance. "It's nice though, when you're out here early, it kinda' feels like you're the only person in the world."

Sakura agreed that that was a good summarization. It was rare to see such a highly-populated area so…empty. For the rest of the journey to Kakashi's meeting ground, she couldn't take her eyes off it.

_**Fwoosh!**_

The duo burst through a bunch of leaves, carefully landing on a patch of grass-stained dirt, sandals smudging with green. Sakura very quickly unfurled Kakashis last note, making sure they were at the right spot.

She needn't have checked, as Sasukes presence a few meters away confirmed that they were in the correct area. The Uchiha youth had solemnly sat himself on a protruding tree branch, one leg hanging downwards while the other extended the full length of the twig. His black eyes reflected the rising sun eerily well, small beams of light dancing through the treetops.

He shot the two a look of recognition (which is more than he'd give anyone else) before his attention shot back to the sunset. Even the slightest act of non-aggression confused Naruto, who was used to casual disdain from Sasuke.

He did not get the chance to dwell on this as more leaves rustled and fell to the ground. Kakashi emerged from the forest, with an old man slowly walking behind him. The Jonin's sudden appearance prompted Sasuke to hop down from his wooden perch, softly hitting the ground.

"Morning." Kakashi said, yawning tiredly through the mask. His back was taken up by a slim pack that strung over the soldiers. "This is Tazuna. He's a construction worker from the land of waves. Recent developments in his town have made him the target of a small bandit group. We'll be making sure he gets back safely." The man gave a small wave.

All three genin nodded their heads in comprehension, arms tingling with the excitement at the prospect of a real mission. Kakashi cracked his shoulder, loosening out for the long journey ahead.

"Are we ready to go?" He asked, to which Naruto was the first to respond with an over-excited:

"**Yes!**"

"Well, let's not waste any time then. Team Seven, it's time to depart!"

Naruto dashed out in front, sandals splashing into the residual rain water that had built up from the night before. Sakura followed close behind him, legs feeling numb from the overwhelming sense of adventure and intrigue. Sasuke even cracked a slight smile as he trailed the others with his hands in his pockets. This was the birth of a legend.

"Also, who brought the map?" Kakashi asked.

The question bought silence and stillness over team seven, every one expecting the other to say they had it, but not a single response filled the air. This waiting quickly turned into thinking, accusing glances being thrown around the quartet until Sasuke finally looked to Kakashi and said, 100% confidently.

"You were supposed to bring it."

Kakashi snorted loudly, before his mind began to race backwards to the day he announced the mission. It was him. He was meant to bring the map.

* * *

"Oh jesus christ." Tazuna laid his face in his palms as the Konoha hall of records line _**slowly**_ died down, Kakashi being placed at the very back. The old man and the genin of Team 7 had been sat in the itchy, slightly moist chairs that were glued to the back of the room.

Finally, with a ring of the bell, Kakashi reached reception, voice uncharacteristically polite as he talked to the lady at the desk.

"Uh, hello, do you have a…map of the land of waves I could borrow?"

"I do, can I have your registration number?"

Kakashi's eye became flushed with confusion.

"My what?"

"You're a jonin, aren't you?"

"Yes."

"You get a registration number that allows you to pull from public records, what's yours?"

It was now that Kakashi realized that maybe the long number he was given at the induction ceremony was more than just irrelevant data.

"…Can you go by name?"

"No sir, we only take registration numbers for higher-level documents."

"…My name's Kakashi Hatake."

"Sir, we need a number."

"But you know who I am right, I'm very high-ranking I- "

"I know who you are sir, but I need a number."

"Why? Why do you need a number if you know who I am?" Kakashi's voice became flushed with previously unknown panic, flashing glances back to his students.

"Because we need identification."

"My face? Is my face not identification enough for you?!"

"Sir, please stop making a fuss, the lines building up behind- "

"_**I'M-**_ "Kakashi cleared his throat, realizing the presence of people lined up after him. "-not making a fuss. I just, quite frankly, think it's a bit silly that you have an apparent ANBU level lockdown on a map and you're standing here, giving me shit -"

"Sir, are you going to give me your registration number or not?"

Kakashi blankly starred at her for a bit, before sharply turning on his heel and waving the counterwoman off like she was nothing.

"It's fine, I know the way."

All of Team Seven as well as Tazuna let out a debilitating sigh at the show of absolute pointlessness they'd just witnessed. As Kakashi passed them, Sakura felt her inner-self echo with superiority.

_**Man, how'd he ever get to be a jonin? His memory skill must be AWFUL.**_

* * *

Brittle earth cracked under Narutos feet as the boy joyously walked forwards, kicking up dust behind him. They'd been walking for around an hour, and despite Kakashi's argument with the hall of records putting a slight dampener on things, the ecstatic feeling of being _**real ninja **_hadn't quite faded yet.

"Naruto, keep back." Kakashis voice crackled as said boy started to get too far ahead of the group

"Ah, why?!" Naruto complained, reluctantly slowing down his pace as they passed through the emerald hillsides.

"We're here to protect Tazuna from bandits, if you're not careful, they'll kill you instead."

Naruto may have "humphed" but his wide steps became noticeably slower and softer, kicking up small rocks instead of any dirt. His pace noticeably slowed, orange figure slouching backwards to meet Sakuras pink one.

"Hey, Sakura, you want to play I spy?" He said, eyes slanting sideways to the girl, who gladly took the opportunity to play a game over her current activity which had been picking her nails and adjusting her hair.

"Sure." She responded, expression perking up. This acknowledgment of endearment instantly lifted Narutos mood to his usual sunny self, breaking out into a toothy grin.

"Alright! I spy with my little eye, something beginning with S!" He exclaimed with a tone that was way too loud for a game of I spy.

Sakura's eyes darted upwards with a surprising amount of enthusiasm, as she almost immediately guessed "sky"

"Nope."

"Uh…" Her gaze drifted to the polar opposite of her initial answer, watching as small bits of orange dirt cracked under Tazuma's shoes.

"Sandals?"

Naruto stayed silent, eyes slightly widening into the abyss as an unbecoming reaction of shock adorned his features. This sudden reaction perplexed Sakura enough that she stayed silent in confusion, until Naruto suddenly turned to her with a goofy half-smile.

"What…what are those?" He asked, tone implying that he was one-hundred percent serious, the second-hand feeling of stupidity causing Sakura to completely pause. Seconds ticked down before she snapped back to the present, looking at Naruto with what could only be described as bafflement.

"…these." She motioned down to her feet, the Uzumakis eyes vibrating with surprise as he realized he'd not known the name of a piece of clothing he himself had been wearing for longer than he could remember.

"…I knew that, I was just testing you." Naruto sputtered, obviously lying.

"This is pitiful." Kakashi decided he would intrude on their game, shooting both genin a look of exasperation, the glance being all that was needed to fire Naruto back up again.

"Hey, if it's so pitiful, why don't you do better?!"

"I can, you're looking at the number five world ranked I Spy champion." The jonin said back, his lazy inflection being invaded with an undercurrent of proudness. "I spy with my little eye something beginning with T"

Both Naruto and Sakuras brains kicked into overdrive to try and decipher what the word could be. T…t….t…

* * *

T…T…T…T

The sun was going down, shining through the forest covered treetops that had become a staple of the path. The letter ran through Narutos head, quickly becoming the only thing he could think about. Sakura had long given up, but Naruto's sheer determination had left the game at a stagnant, T-shaped halt.

"It's turf Naruto." Kakashi finally said, not taking his eyes up from the treetops.

"Ah! So close!" The boy said back, having been stumped by the question for literal hours.

The small patch of forest they were in was exceedingly dangerous considering the circumstances and it itself had taken them around thirty minutes to traverse, one of the four ninjas having to scale the tree tops and look out for any potential signs of an ambush.

"It's clear." Sasukes voice came echoing down from the forest floor, his actual body trailing just seconds later, launching a patch of pine-scented leaves up in the air as he landed.

This announcement prompted Tazuna to let out a groan as he pushed himself up from the tree he'd been resting against, metal flask stirring with the sound of liquid.

"Hey, old man, I'm thirsty, can I have some?" Naruto asked, eyes fixated on the amber-lit flagon. "I promise I won't use my mouth!"

Tazuna grumbled something incoherent in response looking back at the genin with annoyed eyes. "How old are you?"

"13."

"Maybe it five years' time, kid." He replied, taking another bitter-scented swig from the flask before turning his attention to the journey in front of him.

Leaves began to crunch once again under the sound of five (more accurately three because Kakashi and Sasuke were essentially silent) pairs of feet walking through the forest.

* * *

Any light in the sky had well and truly faded, the collage of clouds being replaced by a horizon of stars beaming down on the group. They'd reached a clearing around twenty minutes ago, and had promptly set up camp, creating a circle of sleeping bags around a small, barley lit fire.

Conversation had lulled since Naruto had started eating, the boy too busy with stuffing his face with the instant ramen that he'd left the other four completely silent. At first, all had appreciated a welcome lack of Naruto's babbling, but soon realized that sitting down near a fireplace (when only Naruto and Sakura were actually eating anything) was basically pointless.

Sakura felt an unusual shiver run down her spine as she looked up from her ramen. She could tell from his posture that Sasuke was feeling it too.

"Cold huh?" She said, lamely smiling as she sat up on her sleeping bag.

"Not really." Tazuna basically barked back, cheeks noticeably tinged red as he took another gulp from his flask.

"We're nearing the land of waves, which means we're that much closer to water country. It makes sense that it's cold." Kakashi looked up at her with surprising interest.

"Is the land of waves in Konoha or…" She took a pause, letting Kakashi fill in the blanks.

"The land of waves is technically dead area, after a spat between the leaf and the mist broke into what was essentially civil-war."

Sakura shuffled, encouraging the man to continue as she watched with great interest.

"After the Fourth Mizukage, Yagura Karatachi, died under mysterious circumstances, the Third Mizukage Seiya Samina retook his position and claimed that the fourths death was a leaf conspiracy plot." Kakashi's eye glinted with what Sakura thought was uncharacteristic interest. "The land of waves had been leaf territory up to that point, but Samina quickly claimed the area in name of the mist, which of course, lead to a long, drawn out period of "almost war". If it wasn't for his death, and succession by Mei Terumi, it's entirely possible that the situation would've escalated to a fully-fledged third shinobi world war."

By the time he'd finished his ramble, Kakashi realized he'd completely lost track of where he was, simply talking over silence. Even Naruto's slurping had stopped, the boy staring back at Kakashi with atypical attention.

"Who killed the fourth?" Sasuke suddenly asked, his usually understated voice dripping with interest.

"It's still not known. To delve any further would be getting into conspiracies…" Kakashi attempted in vain to make it sound like he was not interested, the man realizing this himself as he quickly transitioned the conversation back on track. "What really matters is that the leaf and the mist agreed that the land of waves would be considered "no man's land" and it grew to become very self-sustaining, isn't that right Tazuna?"

The old man looked up from his flask and snorted in laughter, before taking yet another swig. Kakashis eye grew in slight questioning, only for Naruto to suck any attention away.

"That's pretty cool Kakashi-Sensei! How do you know all this stuff anyways?"

"Well, a lot of it was from school, but also my own study- "He paused as Narutos face shriveled up into a pout.

"That's not fair! We never learned any cool things in **our **history classes." The Uzumaki boy whined, crossing his arms in frustration.

"This is…basic stuff. If you weren't learning this than what were you learning?"

Naruto scratched his head in thought, mind moving backwards throughout the entire tenure of his school life.

"…We learnt about the lady who ate the fruit." He finally said, unimpressed that that was the only thing he could pull up. "Kagura…Otsosuni?"

"Kaguya Otsutsuki." Sakura corrected him; her alteration being accompanied by a small "tisk" of agreement from Sasuke.

"Didn't she, like, invent chakra?" Naruto asked, scratching through his hair.

"She was the first to popularize the use of it due to the high social status of the Otsutsuki family, but she did not invent it. The story of the "chakra fruit" is generally agreed to be an urban legend, especially since any illustrations of the "god tree" take obvious inspiration from the fire countries "tree of remembrance", which was grown when Kaguya was long dead."

All of the genin looked at him with even greater inquisitiveness than before, as Kakashi displayed an excitement and intrigue that was unbecoming of their perception of him.

"Have you guys learnt about The Sage of The Six Paths yet?" He asked.

"The Sage of The Six huh?" Naruto replied, giving Kakashi all the answer he needed.

"Oh boy, you have a lot to learn. There's a great stage play about this called the Creation of Chakra. Maybe after this mission is over, we can go see it…that is, if you make it out of this alive." Kakshis tone gave way to his usual black comedy, although all three of his students had been so surprised by his enthusiasm that the joke failed to have its usual edge.

Silence resumed, mixing with the naturally cold air and the warmth of the fire. The winds were louder than they were in Konoha, as leaves became detached from branches, swirling up into the dark nights sky.

"Kakashi-sensei…were you a leaf youth?" Sakura finally asked, much to the older mans surprise.

"…Yes, I was."

"Hold on, what's a leaf youth?" Naruto asked, rather frustrated at the appearance of another term he didn't recognize.

"It's like a Konoha patriots' group. My dad was one." Sakura explained, eyes strangely lonely as she spoke.

"The program was cut a month after I joined because of a lack of resources, but it did get me into Konoha politics. Believe it or not, I wanted to become a historian when I was younger." Kakashi laughed as he spoke, rubbing a hand against the back of his head.

"Why didn't you?" Sasukes dusky tone sucked any humor out of the air. The question caused Kakashi's expression to switch from humorous to puzzled, the jonin appearing completely lost in thought. Eventually, he regained his senses, leaning back slightly and closing his eye.

"Well…" His vision began to become shiny, as a wave of reminiscence washed over him.

"_Kakashi, wait up!" A child-like voice boomed out, accompanied by a young boys' footsteps._

"_Yeah, come on Kakashi, we're not all chunin like you!" A girl's voice followed, more joking than the former._

"…I felt like I had to." Kakashi finished, inviting vision back into his life as he opened his eye. The students would be lying if they said they hadn't spent at least a bit of time trying to figure out what he meant.

"_**ZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZ**_!" Tazuna's loud, almost-choking snores began to ring out throughout the forest depths, snapping all of Team 7 outside their fireside chat.

"Well, maybe it's time to dim the lights." Kakashi said, with a slight yawn. "We've got a long day ahead tomorrow."

He raised a hand to the fire, and much like a neat party trick, simply extinguished it. The sound of four bodies clumping against their bedrolls was heard, quickly accompanied by the sound of one of them scrambling to get into a more comfortable position.

This action implied Naruto was annoyed, but more accurately, he was…warm…warm was the only thing that conveyed what he was feeling. Coiling the covers around himself like a tortilla, Naruto curled up into a ball, smile prominent as he drifted into slumber.

_Maybe…this is what a family feels like._

* * *

Naruto awoke to the sound of chirping birds and the sensation of thick, cold air. His head was surprisingly clear considering what happened when he usually went to sleep. The fact that he hadn't had the "eye dream" alone was a victory in his mind.

Drowsily, he sat up and took in his surroundings. The sky was a strange mixture of blue, grey and white, the actual color of it being unmistakably bright, but it still looked…dark.

One of the sleeping bags was empty, prompting his eyes to go through a quick roll call of who was still asleep. Sakura, Kakashi and Tazuna were all still at least half-asleep, so that left…

Sasuke, similarly to when they departed, had seated himself on a tree branch, gaze fixated on the gradient-painted sky. Despite being no more than five meters away from Naruto, Sasuke looked a thousand years away. He was on a different level.

Naturally, Naruto picked up a pine cone and chucked it at him.

Sharp wood spattered in the air, as the back of the Uchihas hand connected with the thrown projectile.

"Hey Mr "I'm too cool to sleep", go back to bed!" Naruto shouted, apparently angry at the fact that Sasuke was an early riser. "How long ago did you get up anyway?"

For some reason, Sasuke took it upon himself to answer this. "20 minutes ago. I heard rustling in the bushes."

"_**Ha!**_ It's probably a deer or a cat or something. 'Sides, you can't have been that sleepy if that woke you up."

"I'm not a big sleeper."

"I can tell, since you're getting woken up by a cat!"

This shouting match was cut short by the audible sound of leaves crinkling in the forest depths. Sasuke's eyes widened, maybe by a bit too much, as his visible discomfort caused Naruto's laughter to increase.

"Are you serious dude?! _MEOOOOW!" _The blonde lightly kicked at the bushes while he jeered, smile breaking through the cool morning air. Sasuke found no such humor in the situation, eyes laser focused on the forest depths.

"...Sasuke, quit being a baby!" Narutos previously comedic tone became slightly shaken at his rival's concentration. "It's just a ca- "

Leaves were torn as a sharp light glinted through the forest, its tip sharply reflecting against Narutos now enlarged eye. Through the forest-coated abyss shoot a sharp, metallic rope, the edge of which looked like a brutally razor-finned kunai.

Naruto wanted to move, to jump out of the way but an odd jam of memories caused him to freeze up…

_The sound of the steel cutting through wind zipped through the air, as Naruto braced in terror for the cut._

His body did one thing, but his brain told him another…

_**Move.**_

_**Move.**_

_**Move.**_

"MOVE!" Sasuke's shattered through his thoughts like a sharp spear, as the Uchiha leapt from the tree-branch and grabbed onto Naruto in the air, dragging his teammate out of the deadly ropes path.

Naruto only fully snapped back to reality when he felt his head hit the ground, Sasuke not being able to nail his landing with the addition of hanging onto him.

"What the hell are you doing?!" Sasuke yelled, obviously not expecting a response as he sharply stood back onto his feet to face the attacker, only to find out that the last word should've been pluralized.

Two masked faces leered back at him, beady eyes pointing out of the top of their jet-black rebreather while horns protruded from their forehead protectors.

"Sorry brother, I missed." One of them said, before he cut through the forest residue that was in front of him, revealing the razor-rope he threw was now spiraled around a sharp metal claw resting on his left arm.

"No matter…these two aren't important anyway." The other replied, a matching claw glinting on his right arm.

Sasukes senses began to simultaneously heighten and numb as he tried to formulate a plan of attack that didn't end with him being turned into shredded cheese. His eyes darted around the area, calculatedly picking out every battle variable he could spot.

"…_**Eck! **_What the hell?" Sakura's newly-awoken voice added yet another one onto the copious amount of them Sasuke had been able to spot.

"Sakura, stay back!" He yelled, only to realize the girl had become frozen in fear. He saw a glint in the right brother's eye, and immediately realized what he needed to do. Running towards her, he attempted to beat the chains path, hand's folding into signs.

The kunais razor-edges sliced through the water-vapor laced air, looking almost dull due to the lack of light.

"_Fire Style: Grand Fireball Jutsu!"_ Sasuke yelled, feeling his mouth become alight as he let loose a massive sphere of fire in the brother's direction, the attack big enough to engulf both of them if they hadn't moved.

Unfortunately, they were fast and while the Uchiha had succeeded in keeping Sakura alive, one of them had set his sight on a defenseless, frozen Naruto, while the other leapt towards a sleeping Tazuna.

"Sakura, go after the old man!" Sasuke yelled, gaze focused on the attacker who was getting closer to Naruto.

"Uh, okay…" She replied, half-heartedly beginning to run up to the fireplace. In the meanwhile, Sasuke launched himself off the ground, hoping to stop the brother with the left gauntlet. He watched Naruto cower under the man, seemingly content with staying put and dying.

Sasuke wasn't even watching his technique, prioritizing travel speed over anything, as he watched the rebreather-wearing man hold the glove up to the air, eyes practically bleeding with willingness to kill the boy bellow him.

The Raven-haired boy raised a leg up, hoping to kick through the enemies' head, only for the sole of his foot to connect with the metal of the claw.

Sasukes eyes expanded in fear as the man's own met his. He'd had to act so fast he hadn't been prepared for a situation in which his kick didn't land perfectly, which was what he was facing right now. His foe began to let out cold breaths as he lightly pushed Sasuke through the air, before straightening his elbow in preparation to spike him with the blades of his claw.

Despite not even lasting a second, Sasukes time in the air felt like an hour.

"_**AAAAAAAAH!**_" A scream was heard as metal dug into flesh.

Sasuke felt his back hit the dirt softly. It took a couple of seconds for him to realize that there were no cuts or slashes adorning his body, and he was still in relatively one peace. Sharply, sitting up, his ears were greeted by the audible war cry as well as the smell of blood.

"_FUCK, FUCK, FUCK!" _The older enemy screamed, eyes clutching closed as his body almost fell limp.

_**SLINKT!**_

_**SLINKT!**_

_**SLINKT**_

Sasuke felt his stomach drop as he saw a clearly scarred-out-of-his-mind Naruto **jackhammering **a kunai knife into the man's leg, "fight or flight" clearly kicking in. Though, despite the wounds, the man still mustered up the energy to quickly unleash a backhand to Naruto, sending him flying across the ground.

Letting out a small sigh of relief as the pain in his leg began to null, he turned his attention back to Sasuke, far too late in doing so as the Uchihas foot came cracking into his jaw, any light or consciousness fading from the man in an instant.

He hit the ground with a loud _**THUMP**_, Sasuke wasting no time before he yanked the gauntlet off the man's hand before he kicked it to the side, so even if the opponent was to wake up, he'd be completely unarmed. He wasn't even given a chance to rest for a second, however, before a series of shrieks erupted from the fireside.

Sakura emptied out her pockets, much to what could easily be described as either amusement or embarrassment from the other brother, who effortlessly dodged her sloppily thrown shuriken, kunai and explosive tags.

Finally, she retrieved one last smoke ball and threw it, somewhat successfully, as a building of steam began to cover the area. Now that he was even somewhat taken off his guard, the man's body seized up with concentrat-

_**BAM!**_

He felt at least a few bones in his face crack as an arm shot outwards through the mirage, connecting flush with his cheek and sending him to the floor outside the smoke ball's radius. His eyes darted upwards, only to observe a boot descending into his face before any vision he had left was blurred as he was flipped onto his stomach and his arms were pinned behind his back.

"The twin demon brothers…that one's Gozu." Kakashi's monotone voice sent shivers down the man's spine. "So, you must be Meizu."

All three genin had made their way back to the area at this point, fear slowly being converted to newfound curiosity.

"You've got it." Meizu groaned, even the movement of his mouth to talk sending a sensation of pain through his face. With this confirmation, Kakashi focus briefly departed towards his students and the body of the enemy that had just been taken down.

"Yikes, someone did a number on his leg. Much longer and that's going to be an amputation. Can any of you apply bandages?"

"I-I can." Sakura pointlessly raised her hand, voice still shaky from the events that had transpired. This shakiness almost caused her to drop the roll of dressings that Kakashi threw her way.

Taking a short time to observe her technique from afar, Kakashi quickly returned his attention to the man underneath him, not even paying mind to Tazunas lazy awakening yawns (which were followed by awakening cries of confusion)

"Hey! What the hell is this about?!" He yelled, somehow not having been awakened by anything in the last 5 minutes.

"I'm asking the same question Tazuna, because these two don't look like they're from any bandit group I remember operating in the waves." Kakashi answered, tone infected with an underlying tone of suspicion.

The old man's name caused Meizu to desperately start shaking his head under Kakashis palm.

"Tazuna?! Tazuna the bridge builder?!" He shouted; voice almost squeaky with emotion. "Oh, you're a fucking dead man. Gatos gonna fucking kill you!"

"Gato?" Kakashi's eye was now firmly locked onto a now guilty-looking Tazuna instead of the enemy below him.

"Yeah, Gato. The man who rules the wave with an iron fist! He hired us to take out that conman over there. We weren't told that there was a fuckin' high level jonin protecting him."

"How much was offered?" That same jonin asked, much to Tazunas protest.

"I don't have to tell you a goddamn thing!" Meizu yelled back, somehow beginning to feel like he had **any **power in the situation.

The slamming of his face into the ground shattered both this notion and his rebreather, pieces of plastic now scattered across the dirt.

"I think you do."

"Okay, okay!" It didn't take much for Meizu to give in. "Gato offered us 3.6 million ryo **each** if we brought him back to the wave dead and 4 million if we brought him back alive."

"Wow, sounds like you're a hot ticket item Tazuna." Kakashi sarcastically joked, humor being watered down with the legitimate anger present in his voice. Taking a second to once again smash Meizus head against the floor (this time knocking him out), Kakashi sat upwards with a glare in his eye.

"I'll give you five minutes to explain."

"Yeah, what the hell's this about old man?!" Naruto yelled, looking like he'd fully recovered from nearly being killed, his accusing tone only being backed up by similar looks from Sasuke and a now returned Sakura

Tazuna sighed, realizing there was no way around this. "I'm a bridge builder from the land of waves. Recently, I started work on a project that would connect the wave to other developed trading villages…Konoha, Suna, Iwagakure and all that. Gato didn't like it and tried to have me killed. This was the only way I could have a chance of getting it built."

If anyone had been looking closer, they would've seen Kaashis harsh gaze defuse somewhat. "…Tell me more about Gato."

"He's a fuckin tyrant!" Tazuna finally yelled, voice gravelly with both his natural vocals and a distinct scent of alcohol. "He charged in off the back of the Leaf/Mist dispute and practically took the place over with his mob. Now he's syphoning away our money and our work, outsourcing it and raking in the profits while he uses the towns as a glorified drug ring!"

His outburst left Kakashi silent, although not at all shaken, the jonin finally turning around to face the trio of students behind him.

"Give us a minute…"

He began to walk away, the three genin following him quickly as Tazuna was left to sulk by himself.

Assuming a huddled position, Kakashi crouched down to face-level with children, vision fixed as blankly as ever.

"Well Kakashi-sensei, what are we going to do?" Sakura asked quietly.

"That's up to you to decide between yourselves. I won't hold it against you if you decide to abandon the mission."

Sasuke breathed a small sigh of relief, looking at his teacher with reassured eyes.

"Let's leave it, this is way out of our ballpa- "

"Hell no! We can't just leave the old man to die out here!" Narutos admittedly annoying shouting irritated Sasuke more than usual.

"I think we can Naruto, considering the two of **you** nearly died just five minutes ago."

"Hey, I saved your ass just before, don't you forget it!"

"In the slimmest sense of the word. I wouldn't have been put in the put in that situation if you could just muster up the courage to **move**." Sasuke kicked his usual chilly language up to freezing. "And you, Sakura? What were you doing?"

Sakuras eyes fell downcast.

"Hey, lay off!" Narutos hand aggressively pushed down against Sasukes chest, shoving his rival slightly.

"Woah, settle down." Kakashi said, almost half-heartedly.

"No, I'm not going to "lay off"." Sasuke said back, completely ignoring the older man to his side. "The path of the Uchiha is built on individuality and personal achievement, I retain any of that when I'm stuck with two dead weights."

"Say that again and I'll kick your ass!" The blonde yelled back, not exactly helping his case.

"I'll say it as many times as I want because you've made it abundantly clear you're all talk. All the times you scream about becoming the Hokage and you couldn't even get out of the way of an attack." Sasuke's tone became _lethally _venomous as opposed to him and Naruto's usual lax insult wars, something Kakashi took notice of.

"Calm down, both of you. Vote on what you want to do and we'll leave it at that."

"I want to take the old guy to the bridge and I want to help him build it!" Naruto yelled; eyes firmly fixated on the Uchiha.

"I want to abandon the mission and take Tazuna back with us if we have to."

Three pairs of eyes feel on one pair of teal ones.

"…Sakura?" Kakashi finally asked.

The girl felt her throat clutch in nervousness. She didn't know what to do, her inner-thoughts only further echoing this feeling.

_**Oh, come on! It's just like he said, you're basically useless. There's no point in continuing, you'll end up dead. And then wouldn't mum be sad?! Think of that!**_

"I want to help him build the bridge."

The reactions were split, as Naruto's angered frown ballooned into a smile, while Sasuke's eyes began to simmer with anger.

"Unbelievable." He said, gritting his teeth to prevent himself from yelling. This time he froze, having what was presumably a mental freak out in his mind, before, with slightly jagged breaths, he looked up at his squad mates with pure distain. "Sakura, you've just booked us a four-person ticket for a suicide mission."

"You heard what he said Sasuke, the village is in disarray! If we could just- "Sakura started in unexpected flaring defiance only for it to be snuffed out just as fast as it arrived.

"If we could just what? Are you seriously suggesting we take part in a regime change? It's none of our business what goes on in the wave."

"Come on asshole, have some empathy!" Naruto yelled; fist thrown out in front of him, his own fire being contrasted by Sasuke's own rapidly dwindling one.

"I've spent too much of my time arguing with you. You're useless." He pointed at Sakura, almost feeling guilty as visible sadness pointed on her face.

"And you're an idiot…" His finger shifted to Naruto, although the insult was completely numbed via how many times the blonde had heard it. With that, Sasuke sharply turned on his heel and began to walk away "…And next time you're in a fight, try not to freeze up, because I'm not saving you again."

The words had a visible effect on Naruto, the boy letting out a frustrated growl in response, hands clenching as he tried desperately to think of something that would counter what his rival had said.

"…Hey, asshole!" He finally shouted, managing to at least get Sasuke to stop moving and turn his head backwards, sight fixated boredly on Naruto.

"What?"

The Uzumaki quickly grabbed a kunai from his belt, holding his hand up straight before he _**dragged **_the knife across his palm, leaving a deep line of blood pouring down like a low-pressure waterfall

Sasuke looked somewhat ill, Sakura looked about ready to puke. Even Kakashis eye slightly widened at the sight.

"I swear on my blood I'm not freezing up again! And not only that, I'm gonna' help the old man build his bridge and _**I'm gonna become Hokage**_**! **Dattebayo!"

Despite this display being absolutely stupid on paper, Sasuke was left completely speechless, quickly turning back around and walking away, murmuring "that's not even a real word."

"…Sakura, bandage that up please." Kakashi finally uttered, receiving a nod from the girl in response. With that taken care off, he began to walk towards the bed rolls, preparing to pack for the long day ahead.

"So I take it you'll be continuing to escort me?" Tazuna said, as the jonin began to tuck his bedding up.

"Yep."

"God, thank you so much. I don't know what I would've done if…" The older man began to offer his thanks, but they were swiftly rejected as Kakashi began to tie up the rest of his bed roll.

"I'd wouldn't recommend discarding that question so soon." Tossing the rolled-up mattress up onto his back, he turned to face Tazuna. "If any of my students are again put in danger like they were today, you're on your own."

Kakashi received no response and began to walk away, leaving the bridge builder to his own devices, which was the place he may have wanted to be the least right now. Tazuna knew he was doing the right thing for his nation but it felt…dirty.

It was situations like this that made you want to hit the bottle.

* * *

Any travelling that proceeded from here began to feel like a blur. Dampened fields, frigid riversides and small, dried out patches of forest all held little whimsey over the group, morale being at a complete low.

Sasuke walked out in-front of the group, not switching his instincts off for even a second. In fact, none of them did, except maybe Kakashi.

The sun began to set as they made their way through an enclosed area that connected to a small stream, any orange light from the sunset being completely washed out by the dark, rain filled clouds. They all went to bed quickly, as opposed to the chatter and conversation of the previous night.

A shower of droplets rained down upon them, making it hard to get any sleep. This wasn't an issue as much as those same droplets constantly hitting the nearby forest leaves, creating rustling sounds. The genin were kept up all night, eyes darting open at even the smallest whisper of the forest.

Then they hit what Naruto sometimes called "the 4AM breaking point". It was where you gave up any hope of falling asleep, and turned into a comatose slug on the mattress, lying there in wait for the time where it would be acceptable to get up.

That time came around two hours later, when Kakashi awoke, yawning loudly, which sent a sigh of relief jolting through the rest of Team 7, all of them collectively sitting up.

"Wow, you guys didn't get much sleep, did you?"

He was met with three nodding heads.

"Well, maybe you should've. We've got at least another day or two before we reach the land of waves." The older man began to crouch, retrieving a book from his back pocket and cracking the cover open, noticeably keeping it low down.

"Hey…what cha' reading Kakashi-sensei?" Naruto asked, having observed his teacher's intention lowering of the book cover. The question yielded a slight pause.

"…It's an adult book." Kakashi finally said, seemingly more on edge than he was when he fought the demon brothers.

"Cool, like where people kill each other?"

"You could say that."

This interaction left his instincts so shot, that he didn't even notice Sakura's hand making a stealthy grab onto the spine of his book, ripping it out of his grasp. The older man let out a groan of embarrassment, as the girl's eyes scanned the page, finally reading out:

"…Icha Icha: Make Out Tactics."

The announcement of the title caused any and all noise to be vacuum-style sucked out of the area, silence befalling the early morning atmosphere. That is until Naruto realized what had been said.

"_Pffttt…__**hahahahaha!**_" He started to laugh loudly, Sakuras much quieter giggles forming a perfect harmony of Kakashi's embarrassment, as the jonin clutched his face in his hands.

The team spirit began to pick up a little more after that, and by the time they had departed from the temporary campsite, Naruto and Sakura were already back to playing I spy, as the group lurched through the waterlogged forest depths, eventually emerging into a clearing.

"I Spy with my little eye, something beginning with P!"

"Puddles." Sakura guessed immediately.

"Yep."

It had been pretty obvious what it was due to the eye-catching nature of the biome they'd found themselves in. The rocky foundation of the area looked almost stamped in, as messy broken holes of stone ornamented the ground, each one having been filled up with residual rain water.

Naruto laughed to himself, as he childishly stomped in one of the puddles, sending small bits of water flying up into the air.

"I wonder what caused these." Sakura observed the miniature ponds with trivial interest.

"Probably the water countries natural lowering of…" Kakashi began to speak but something caught his eye. A thin layer of mist began to emanate from the surrounding forest, barley visible but relaying an aery sign of danger to the older man. Usually he'd ignore it, but considering their situation, and just _who _this could be, Kakashi was taking no chances.

"…Everyone stay still."

His lazy character became scarily serious as he wasted no time in brandishing a kunai. Sakura and Sasuke also immediately snapped to attention, something Naruto desperately wanted to replicate, but instead, he felt himself freeze up.

His lungs became heavy, and not just because of the mist that was covering more and more of the surrounding area by the second. He couldn't move. It was like he'd died or something, his limbs just wouldn't respond. Suddenly, a jolt of pain shot through his hand as he clutched down on his palms, left one feeling bandage.

"_I swear on my blood I'm not freezing up again!"_

The echo of his own words was enough to jolt him back to the situation at hand, lips curling into a half smile as he put his guard up.

"What the hell?!" Tazuna yelled, his glasses fogging up from the haze in the air. "What's going on."

Kakashi didn't waste time answering his question, instead simply holding up the back of his hand, index finger raised. Any unnecessary noise subsidized, the only things he could hear through the ever-growing smoke screen was the faint chirping of the birds in the distance.

Nothing.

Nothing.

Nothing

_**SLING!**_

The smoke dispersed somewhat, as a hulking sword came crashing down against Kakashi, sparks flying off it as the jonin managed to block the attack with the kunai, getting pushed backwards in the process.

A fist flew outwards through the mist, only for Kakashi to dodge pass it, leaping up into the air to avoid a sword slash to the legs. The sound of metal being pressed reverberated through the mist, as Kakashis feet came pushing down against the sword, attempting to keep the weapon against the ground

Almost immediately upon contact with the sword however, Kakashi realized that it was far too large to keep pinned down, which was confirmed as the sword easily lifted off the rocky terrain with enough brute force to send Kakashi flying through the air, distortions rippling through the smokescreen.

His body hit the ground hard enough to leave small cracks in the stone, but if it had any effect on him, it was not visible, as the masked man began to immediately throw out hand signs, before uttering a chant of:

"Wind release: flowing wind spiral!"

A small sphere of condensed air appeared in Kakashis hands, quickly being thrown away like a baseball, upon which it imploded on itself, sending visible currents through the mist and blowing enough of it away to reveal Kakashis attacker, as well as give the rest of Team 7 a visual of what was going on.

In the open, stood a man with bandages thrown around his mouth and shoulders. His forehead protector was flung sideways over his head, as the paths of bindings trailed downwards to his black sleeveless shirt.

"Zabuza Momochi, demon of the mist." Kakashi finally said, voice not frightened, but gravely serious. "A missing nin worth 14.8 million ryo."

"Nice intro." Zabuza's voice lacked the same gravitas, posture slouched as his voice echoed with minor comedy. "Allow me to return the favor. You're Kakashi Hatake, the copy ninja, but in terms of cash, he's the one I'm looking for."

He pointed a finger tip at Tazuna, all of his hand (sans the fingers) encompassed by a short black and white camo glove.

"Offers gone up on his head. He's worth enough to pay off that bounty you mentioned."

"Or enough to attempt to overthrow Kirigakure." Kakashi replied, not buying the excuse he had been presented.

"Smart." The missing-nin replied, tilting his head slightly. He was silent for a few seconds, sharp, cruel eyes borrowing into Kakashis smooth, calculating ones, before he finally stood up straight. "Say, it's hard to read your face behind that mask."

"That's kind of the point."

Although they were locked into a battle situation with a presumably deadly shinobi, the fact that Kakashi still retained some humor was at least a bit reassuring to the genin in attendance.

Zabuza shrugged, before fully brandishing his sword upwards and pointing it at his foe.

"Are we gonna stand her talking all day or are we going to fight?"

"…Could we stand here talking all day?"

Chuckling somewhat in response, Zabuza did not miss the true meaning of his foes words as he broke out into a sprint at Kakashi, sword glimmering demonically as the other ninja stayed in a defensive stance.

Closer and closer the attacker got, before Zabuza figured the distance was close enough to justify a sword attack. The silver weapon raised up, circular holes cutting through the left-over mist that radiated through the air.

Kakashis eye stayed locked on it as it drew nearer and nearer…

_**SLING!**_


	5. Zabuza, Demon Of The Mist

_**Sling!**_

Zabuza's hulking weapon crashed down against Kakashi, only for the blade to vibrate with the sensation of splattering wood as opposed to cutting through flesh. His body and vision shifted backwards, catching Kakashi preparing for a back-elbow strike.

_**Sling!**_

Another swing. Another substitution.

Zabuza's eyes spotted yet another Kakashi to his side, this time attempting to take him out with a straight stabbing motion.

Another swing. Another substitution.

Noticing another copy on his other side, Zabuza quickly flipped the swords blade upwards (retaining his control on the hilt) before jamming it rearward into what he hoped to be the jonin's stomach.

The sound of smoke exploding and timber cracking seemed to either savvy up or finally bore Zabuza, as he began swinging the sword counter-clockwise at another noticeable clone…only he didn't stop. Over and over, he felt the sword cleave through wood, popping the ever-emerging substation clones faster than they could properly appear.

This decently-planned attack only ended up gifting Zabuza a small circle of carved up stumps instead of Kakashis dead body. The mist-jonins beady eyes began to scan over his surroundings, looking for even the smallest sign of his foe…

After the loud sounds of dispersing smoke and metal meeting wood that had radiated through the area, even the slightest noise would become noticeable. In this case, it was the echo of air and mist breaking above Zabuza

Without even thinking, he thrust his sword directly upwards, scattering mist around the blade. With renewed surrounding vision, he saw Kakashi's face _inches _away from the sword's edge, its sharpness reflecting into his eye.

The man had no choice but to land flat on his back to avoid being split in two, only for him to come eerily close to the sword again, when Zabuza planted it into the dirt, close enough to his head that Kakashi could swear he lost a few locks of hair.

As he quickly leapt up to his feet, Kakashi thanked god for his opponent's sudden lack of hand-eye coordination, only to realize that it had not been sudden as much as calculated.

_**Fwoosh!**_

Zabuza used his sword as a dirt-imbedded roundabout, swinging through the air by the handle and unleashing a dropkick onto Kakashi's chest, which sent him flying backwards. However, the damage had not stunned the leaf-ninja as much as Zabuza had initially counted on, as Kakashi transitioned his fall into a back roll, redirecting himself into a sprint at his enemy, who had left himself open in an attempt to retrieve his still buried sword.

Kakashis boot cracked against Zabuzas hand, throbbing pain enough to cause the latter to drop his grip on the stone-embedded weapon. In a hasty reply, Zabuza threw out two fast punches, the first of which was blocked and the second of which was caught.

His view of the world was shaken around as Kakashi yanked him backwards, holding both of his arms against the back of his head.

_**Crack!**_

The masked man's knee connected with Zabuza's back, bending his spine slightly. His eyes shut closed in agony, snapping open again in hopes of finding something that could help him avoid a second strike. In the miniscule amount of time he had before Kakashi began to prepare his knee again, his eyes rested on one thing.

_**Fwoosh!**_

Kakashi's knee shot out once more, only for it to hit the air as opposed to Zabuzas back, the mist-ninja leaping in the air and vertically running up the visible parts of his entrenched sword, finally using this momentum to leap upwards and flip over Kakashi, redirecting the grip that had been clutched over his neck in an effort to try and suppress Kakashi's breathing.

His attempt to choke out his foe was short lived, as Kakashi quickly leaping into a front somersault off the ground, shoving both of his feet into Zabuzas stomach and diving forwards, while his opponent stumbled back.

Wasting no time in resuming the fight, Zabuza quickly charged at Kakashi yet again, arms draped downwards, instead of rigid like they were before. The leaf-ninja threw out an angled hook kick but it was easily weaved through, a lazy uppercut being chucked from the shinobi who was now underneath him.

Zabuzas clothed knuckle reached further and further for Kakashis face, only to be met with air as its target gently reared his head back before catching Zabuza flat on the back of his head with a downwards axe kick, laying him out level on the ground.

Sensing the fight's impetus was in his favor, Kakashi leaped upwards, completing two full spins through the air before transitioning his falling momentum into a kick. Zabuza visibly flinched as he rolled away, hearing the sound of his opponent's heel cracking into the stone ground.

The sword now served as a dividing barrier, Kakashi on one side, deciding his next move, Zabuza on the other, slowly getting up. This divide was quickly removed, as _Kakashi _yanked the sword from the ground, fully intending to use it. The only problem?

He hadn't counted on it being quite this heavy, and as a result, had lifted it far too high to control, nearly tipping over backwards at the weapons weight. Sensing a lull in the fight, Zabuza leaned onto his back and used his legs to launch upwards, kicking Kakashi in the gut while he himself landed on his back, Kubikiribōchō landing in his hands.

Quick on the rebound, Kakashi snatched a kunai from his satchel and began to wield it like a chakra-blade, resting the metal against his knuckles. His arm moved in a blur; the swift motion almost too fast for Zabuza to keep up with.

_**Clang!**_

Using the weight from the handle hanging on his knee, the mist-ninja pressed a palm towards his sword, pushing it back upright in time to block the kunai strike that was heading his way, his block perfectly harmonizing with the strength of Kakashis strike to send the jonin staggering in reverse.

Before he could even hope of mustering a counter-attack, Zabuza darted forward, hanging low to the ground with his sword at the ready. Sensing a powerful attack intended to slice him up, Kakashi tacitly pushed out his kunai in an attempt to simply heed the assault, only for this to turn out being a grave miscalculation.

Zabuza quickly stood upright, flicking his sword straight up before bringing it down against the kunai as if it were the hands of a clock, the small knife being ripped from Kakashis hands thanks to the small holes that were engraved in the Kubikiribōchō.

This wasn't the end of the assault, as Zabuza flipped the blade around like he was a kid doing finger tricks with a pencil, moving the weapon down to his legs before it shot back up at Kakashi's head, the leaf ninja barley able to dodge without his joints cracking from the sudden movements he undertook to do so.

With this small bit of push-back, Zabuza created a grand opening for himself. Again, he stuck the sword into the ground, but he was not keen to repeat his mistakes, using it as an improvised poll, as he swung around, landing a flush kick to Kakashis head.

"_Aah_" Kakashi involuntarily yelled, view bobbing downwards, as Zabuza completed his rotation, feet firmly planted on the ground, that was until his left leg shot backwards, connecting hard with Kakashis shin.

As well as aiming to break a bone, the kick also served the purpose of pushing Kakashi off his feet and onto the ground, face first. If a sudden lack of sight wasn't enough, Zabuzas scream of "_Water Release: Rising Geyser!" _did nothing to calm the man's nerves.

The earth under Kakashi begin to crack and shatter, while the sound of running water got louder and louder, until finally, a large portion of the land came loose and went spiraling into an ever-emerging lagoon, Kakashi in tow.

Water filled his lungs almost immediately, seeping through the thin fabric of his mask as he desperately tried to maneuver himself back upright, the shaking of his arms creating small barrages of bubbles in the water.

"_Water Release: Water Prison Jutsu!_"

Weight began to press down on Kakashi, as the water began to compress around him into an oval shape. Slight, murky bits of light began to shine into the fluid blue ripples, as a murky Zabuza kept his hand on the river ball.

Meanwhile, the genin looked on in shock.

_He got him?! _Naruto yelled internally; eyes widened.

_This is bad._ Sasuke braced his kunai.

_**Fuckfuckfuckfuckfuckfuckfuckfuckfuckfu**_

Inner-Sakura chanted over and over, the outer-Sakura's face drooping in hopelessness.

Zabuza simply laughed, as he rested the sword on his back his attention shifting from the imprisoned Kakashi to the three students to his center, resting a hand on the ball of water to make sure it stayed functional.

"Hey, I don't have a problem with killing kids but…" His finger stuck out menacingly at Tazuna, the old man reacting as if he was being held at gunpoint. "…he's the only one I'm after, you'd only be throwing your lives away for nothing."

Pain surged through Naruto's left hand.

"Hey, asshole!" The Uzumaki screamed over at Zabuza, fiery determination brimming from his eyes. "If you think we're going to just let the geezer die, you've got another thing coming! He's got a…"

Much like a train on wooden tracks, Naruto's heroic speech quickly went off rails, turning around to Tazuna sheepishly.

"…What do you have? Like, family?"

"Daughter…son-in-law." The man mumbled back, clearly too scared to give a proper answer. Naruto snapped back to Zabuza, eyes burning alight once more.

"_**HE'S GOT A DAUGHTER AND A SON-IN-LAW TO GO HOME TO! **_So, if you want to kill him, you're gonna have to kill me!_**" **_

Silence overtook the area, the sound of the birds faintly punctuating both the weight and ridiculousness of Naruto's words (to be honest, he wasn't even sure if he believed them.)

Zabuzas cruel eyes were both at once amused and impressed, as he reached over to the water prison.

"Alright then…" Using his free hand to cast seals, he eventually slapped it onto the liquid sphere, water dispersing around the webbing of his fingers and running down his hands, darkening the material of his gloves.

With force, he tore his palm from the surface, only for some of the water to flow with him, a streak of it curving through the air with a complete disregard for gravity.

"_Water Release: Water Clone Jutsu_." The suspended water began to shift and shape into perfect clone of Zabuza, its initial translucent, blue appearance quickly taking identical form to the mist-ninja, who unsheathed his sword and handed it to the clone.

While their attention was certainly focused on Zabuza above all, Naruto and Sakura managed to notice Sasuke signaling them, gritting his teeth.

"You two…" He harshly whispered, eyes remaining locked on the clone ahead of him. "stay in formation."

Naruto and Sakura nodded their heads in a sign of acknowledgment, although this small buzz of strategy was short lived as Zabuzas light footsteps began to break into a sprint, clumps of brown dirt kicking up onto his black and white sandals.

As the impeding wave death drew closer and closer, Sasuke stood his ground, not in protection of his comrades or anything like that, but because he hoped maybe he could catch Zabuza off-guard.

Instead, it was him who was unprepared.

"Hey, kid…" Zabuza growled, not halting his sprint as his beady, devilish eyes shot up at Sasuke with quantifiable bloodlust. "You look ready to kill…_but you don't look ready to __**DIE!**_"

Sasuke shoved out a kunai, in an attempt to block the forthcoming assault, but the action itself displayed just how much he underestimated his enemy's speed. Paying the lethal weapon aimed at him no mind, Zabuza threw the Kubikiribōchō up into the air.

Before any of the genin could react, the mist ninjas cracked the back of his elbow into the back of Sasukes head, the boy's body immediately going limp. Zabuza completed his rotation, catching the sword and using his own spinning force to add more power to his horizontal swing, aimed at Tazunas legs.

_**Clang!**_

Due to using power outside his own, Zabuza had relinquished some of his control of the blade, meaning Naruto had prime opportunity to stomp on it, the edge of it just barely missing Tazuna.

The blonde breathed in to say something, but his quip would never become audible, as the metal below him began to slip away from under his sandals.

"Huh?"

Zabuza quite literally pulled the rug out from under him, balancing the sword vertically with the tip of it touching the ground, before he unleashed a tactical kick to the the weapons side, dominoing it into Naruto's face.

This short intervention, however, had given Tazuna enough time to break off into a full-on dash, running away from the assassin as fast as a 65-year old conceivably could. Zabuza fully intended to follow him, but the sound of metal whizzing through the air distracted him.

Flashes of pink, white and black entered his vision, his eyes slanting in focus as Sakura threw out what appeared to be a piece of wire, the thin, metal thread heading straight for his eye. It didn't take much effort for him to catch it, but he soon realized that this may have been the girl's attention.

"Ha!" Sakura laughed triumphantly, as the wires true nature became apparent, small, sharp barbs running along its length, digging into Zabuzas hand. He simply looked back at her with a fixed, unimpressed expression before raising his hand up, showing that the intended cutting effect was useless when he was made of water, said liquid dripping down the cut that had been made in his glove.

"Oh."

Sakura proceeded to eat a faceful of dirt as Zabuza yanked the razor wire forward, with far too much force for her to contend with. Taking half a second to ensure she hadn't substituted, Zabuza circularly spun his sword, severing the line of wire while flicking out the bit attached to his hand.

He shifted his body-language towards Tazuna who, as expected for a man of his age, had barely made it fifteen feet away from Zabuza.

"Water release: Wave slicer." His sword began to flourish with the scent of the ocean, small bits of water leaked and compressed from the sharp edge of its blade. This dripping soon turned to steam as one of his most powerful…

_**Bam!**_

A hard fist slammed into the back of Zabuzas head, knocking both his awareness and vision loopy and sending his attack flying upwards towards the sky.

Despite being completely put off-balance, Zabuza managed to muster up enough focus to throw a harsh kick backwards, his foot connecting with something that felt human. Turning a still dazed head towards his attacker, he found Naruto standing there, smirk plastered on his face.

Uncharacteristically quiet (especially considering his expression), the genin began to run at Zabuza, fist thrusting for a punch.

Seconds passed as he ran, the man in front of him clearly not considering him a threat, as no matter how close the young boy got, he seemingly refused to react.

Closer.

Closer.

_**Closer**_.

_**SLING!**_

In the time it took Naruto to blink, Zabuza had already decapitated him. The Uzumakis (last) expression was one of shock and horror as his head became disconnected from the rest of him.

_**Poof!**_

Smoke exploded around Naruto, the white screen temporarily blocking Zabuza's eyesight. By the time it faded, the battlefield was decidedly empty aside from the real Zabuza and the water prison.

As the clone began to slowly scan his surroundings, its caster reflected on what he'd just saw.

_Was that a shadowclone? Kid's chakra must be wrecked, that's a jonin level-jutsu…_

His surprise quickly simmered with the sight of Kakashi swimming around the water prison, looking futilely for any imperfection.

"Air getting thin in their huh, Kakashi?" He said, bitter sarcasm clinging at his word. A response unsurprisingly never came. Instead, Kakashi's own mind raced with thought, trying to figure out a way that he could escape from the circular cage.

_I'm running out of breath. I've got six minutes tops until I start choking. This isn't good._

* * *

"Hold on, where's the old dude?" Naruto mused, his bright blue eyes peeking out from behind a tree, weary of Zabuza's clone, who was patrolling the outside area.

"I don't know." Sakura answered, more focused on the currently drowsy/unconscious/possibly dead Sasuke, who she'd laid out onto the floor, using a bundle of leaves as a makeshift pillow (it really was dire straits)

Naruto turned to the girl; his eyes suddenly transitioning to a thousand-yard stare.

"…Hey Sakura."

"Yeah?" The girls voice was shaky, but she still took the time to answer.

The memories of the shadow clone finally became comprehendible by Naruto. "I felt something…weird." A shiver travelled down his spine, as Sakura stared at him, with disturbed but wide eyes.

Conversation halted between them, just for a few seconds.

"…Wake up sleeping beauty will ya?" Naruto finally said, returning to scouting Zabuza with an apparent disregard for the existential crisis that had just washed over him.

"Okay." Sakura said again, lumps forming in her throat while her mind buzzed with visions of Zabuza cutting down the tree branches, easily disemboweling Naruto before moving onto her, sword glinting demonically as he laughed and-

Okay, maybe it was for the best to just wake Sasuke up.

"Hey…Sasuke?" She gently shook him, not being able to help noticing how his hair rested against his forehead, unusually messy.

"Hey…Sas-_**AAH!**_" A hand raised up to her throat as Sasukes eyes snapped open, both of them letting out a yell of anguish. Sakura's teal eyes grew with fear as the Uchiha instinctively grabbed a kunai from his belt and shoved it towards her optics, his eyes pulsating with unfounded fear.

"Hey, hey, easy!" Naruto semi-yelled back, preparing to jump at Sasuke to block the kill, but his words were apparently enough to snap his rival out of his murderous daze.

Sasukes kunai-grabbing hand froze, as did his entire body. After taking a few seconds to comprehend exactly where he was and what he was doing, his gaze shriveled up in guilt as he pushed himself away from Sakura.

"Sorry, sorry…" He said, the sorrow and culpability present in his voice abnormal for his character. Sakura mouthed quick "it's okay" the complete shock of his outburst stacking onto an already awful amount of stress that had built up when Zabuza made his appearance.

"Could you keep it down?" Naruto whispered sternly, returning his full attention to the mist-ninja outside the tree-ridden abyss. "You keep that shit up and we're all dead."

Sasuke wanted to protest but he knew he had no case, so instead he just stayed silent looking sideways near the ground.

"We need to figure out how to get Kakashi-sensei out of that big water ball."

"…It's a water prison jutsu. You have to remove his contact with the water." Sasuke added, this useful information only serving to cause Naruto to eye him with further scrutiny.

"Wow, that would've been nice to know instead of telling us to "_stay in formation_"" The blonde yelled as loud as he possibly could under the circumstances, adding in a mocking imitation at the end for good measure.

"Did you stay in formation?"

"What do you think?" For all his idiocy, Naruto was generally succeeding in making Sasuke look stupid. A debilitating but aggressive stillness hung in the air, no one knowing what to say next, before, finally, eyes pointed at the ground, Sasuke spoke up.

"If we're going to take down the clone, we need to sever his body in some way, to the point the water can't keep redistributing his chakra around itself."

"That's not how it works!" Naruto was quick to argue. "My shadow clones die when they take enough dama- "

"You can use shadow clones?" Sasuke cut him off, neglecting to mention the difference between shadow clones and elemental clones.

"Yeah...but that's not the point! The thing is- "

The Uchiha quickly blocked out Naruto's incorrect ranting, the tirade turning into nothing but white noise. A plan started to form in Sasukes mind, as the boy reached downwards a clutched the blades of a fuma-shuriken.

Interrupting his rival once more, Sasuke spoke up, eyes replacing fear with ingenuity.

"I've got an idea."

* * *

Zabuza was really regretting casting his mist-jutsu, because it made finding the old man _**really fucking difficult**_. Normally, his hearing was far greater than sharp enough to find even the most intricate detail in his fog, but Tazuna must've just stopped moving entirely, because the vapor had fallen silent.

_**FWOOSH**_

_**FWOOSH!**_

Two shuriken's shot outward, mist dissolving around the edged metal. It was here that the quiet assisted Zabuza, as he was able to immediately pin-point and react to the attack.

Sparks flew off the metal of his sword as he easily blocked the shuriken, the small flicker of heat the emitted from the parry fading into the mist. Before he could entirely recover from this distraction however, Sakura leapt out of the mist visibly preparing for a kick.

"_Hya!" _

Given that he'd just parried the shuriken, Zabuza was left slightly out of position. A vertical slice would serve him well, while also not leaving him open, but according to Sakura's flight path that he'd calculated in his head, he would not have enough time to reorient his sword before ending up with a broken nose.

Instead, he swung the sword horizontally, intending to split Sakura in half.

Then he saw it.

A small circle of light reflected off Sakuras waist, trailing backwards towards the misty unknown that lay behind her. Half a second worth of analysis painted the picture clearly in Zabuza's mind. Sakura had created a bungie cord of wire, and if there was three of them, that meant…

Sakura shot back through the air, her natural force completely switching backwards, as she quickly faded into the foggy air. This development left Zabuza in an unexpected position, with his sword outstretched in a parallel slash but no actual target to receive the attack, too much power behind it for him to stop himself.

As a flash of black began to appear through the cloudy air, he realized this was their intention. The sound of footsteps was audible outside his range of vision, but right now, he didn't care to chase them.

Sasuke's body flickered into view, knee braced. Zabuza realized there was nothing he could do, except twist his wrist somewhat in an attempt to keep the boy from totally besting him. The Uchiha's foot shot out, connecting with the blunt edge of the sword.

_**Swoosh!**_

The kick gave the blade enough momentum to continue its trajectory, becoming imbedded inside the water clone's abdomen. Fluid begin to run down and puddle up on the sword's horizontal edges, the cut not being quite deep enough to fully disband the clone thanks to Zabuza's wristwork.

Sasuke briefly hesitated (having fully expected to end the clone's "life" there) but returned to the offensive quickly, throwing out another kick at the dull edge of the Kubikiribōchō in an attempt to further implant it in the water clone.

His kick never met metal as Zabuza caught the attack and pulled Sasuke closer, before using the same hand to _**smash**_ Sasuke's forehead down against the sword that was still stuck in him. The Uchiha collapsed to the ground, eyes twisted and seeing stars, giving Zabuza more than enough time to retrieve his sword.

He raised it upwards before bringing it down on Sasuke hard enough to crack the ground underneath him…however, the blade only hilted itself onto a log.

_Getting real sick of substitutions_

Zabuza's mind echoed with annoyance, as he raised up his weapon with the wood stump still hanging onto the end.

"_Shadow Mob Jutsu!_" Naruto's shrill scream came bursting through the situation's intensity, cleaving any tension like a knife through butter. Not only was it annoying, but it was also echoed a dozen-fold as Naruo charged at Zabuza, flanked by numerous copies of himself.

"Oh, here we go…" The mist-ninja groaned, straightening himself out and letting his muscles breath…before his sword _**ripped **_through the air, the chunk of wood that had been attached going flying directly at the front Naruto.

_**Bam!**_

It wacked him over the head, causing the boy to almost immediately fall over, eyes wide, white and stunned.

Zabuza was unimpressed.

_Did he really just heed the pack when he had eleven other decoys he could've used as cover?_

The mob of Naruto's began to circle around their enemy, eyes mischievously glinting in the cool, misty air. Despite being severely outnumbered, Zabuza felt little fear, gaze circulating over the pack as he mentally did a headcount (discarding the one that had already been ).

_11 _

Two Naruto's attempted to rush him down from two different sides. One was promptly stabbed…

_10_

The other was knocked backwards, as Zabuza transitioned the straight piercing into a strike with the sword's hilt, not even looking at the clone he'd just knocked down. The crowd quickly realized that simply feeding him kills may not have been their best option here, beginning to shift strategies.

One Naruto dived at Zabuza's leg with a kunai, which was quickly blocked by his sword. Just then, two more Naruto's dived through the air, one holding a kunai, the other empty-handed. Thinking on his feet, Zabuza punted the grounded clone hard enough to make it disperse...

_9_

While swinging his sword up clockwise, and attempting to cut through the two airborne ones.

_8_

His sword's range just wasn't wide enough, however as one of the clones managed to successfully bypass the slash, slamming his fist into Zabuza's cheek. The attack barley phased the older man, but it did serve well in pushing him back somewhat (exactly what Naruto wanted)

The mist ninja felt his legs rest up against an elevated body and even without any line of sight, he realized this was Naruto attempting the classic schoolyard trip trick. The heel of Zabuzas sandals came crashing down against the clone's head in a move that would've drawn brain matter had it been the real boy.

_7_

Zabuza continued to walk backwards, paying no thought to the rapidly advancing Naruto clones. The number of footsteps he heard clumped together in an amalgamation of sound, too mixed together for him to be able to accurately guess how many clones were left (had he not been keeping count)

_**Tap**_

_**Tap**_

_**Tap **_

_Tip_

One of the clones stepped out of rhythm, the small change in beat costing him his existence as Zabuza swiveled around faster than he could blink, stabbing him.

_6_

Three Naruto's attempted to engage with him from the front. To them, it was a fight, but to Zabuza, it felt more like a dance.

One charged at him with the kunai. He was easily caught and thrown aside, recovering instantly and charging back at the jonin, along with the other two. Two kicks were thrown at Zabuza, one from either side, but both were blocked, as he dropped the sword.

Taking hold of one of the clones' feet, Zabuza proceed to use him as a human shield, blocking a kunai assault from the previously-cast aside Naruto.

_5_

This same kunai was quickly torn away from the shadow clones' hands and used to impale his throat…

_4_

While Zabuza delivered a hook kick to the third of the offensive trio, not even gazing at him as he effortlessly destroyed the copy in taijutsu. The turning of his back may have been more of a mistake than he realized however, as the weight of the four remaining clones quickly piled onto his back, only for them to be just as quickly slammed onto the ground, bodies scattering.

Zabuza plunged his sword through one, the resulting smoke further intensifying the mist.

_3._

The leftovers' faces became stricken with panic and they readily decided that this fight may not have been worth it. Three streaks of orange began to dart through the mist, running as fast as their legs would carry them.

Zabuza, who had been busy dealing with the one he'd just killed, looked over at the fleeing mob.

Their head start wasn't going to be worth much.

Initially slow, the man began break into a light sprint, gazing at the clones much like a lion would gaze at a Zebra. His footsteps got faster and faster before his sword buried itself in the ground, Zabuza **using it like a pole vault** to elevate himself upwards, grabbing the sword out of the ground as he began to fly.

He blew through the air, cool winds crashing against his face, only slanting his eyes further and further. Finally, he descended onto the pack of clones, who looked up in shook before they were all collectively taken out by the demon of the mists bombing run.

Relishing the feeling of land beneath his feet once more, the man celebrated his bout of innovation, stowing his sword onto his back.

Then, as his sandals shuffled around the ground, he became aware of a small marking that been made. Casting his vision downwards, he found what appeared to be a front facing arrow that had been messily drawn with a kunai.

_**FWOOSH!**_

Wind broke as two large, _deadly _fuma-shuriken came spinning through the misty overlap. His attention snapped to the weapons direction, finding Sasuke with his hand outstretched.

They overlapped and intersected like two race cars, cutting through the thick air that polluted the area and giving Zabuza's water clone no time to…

_**SNIKT!**_

…dodge.

One of the shuriken tore through the duplicate, sending small bits of liquid spilling onto the ground (followed by a much larger waterfall as the water clone fully collapsed in on itself)

Although one's momentum may have been halted, the other weapon continued to fly forwards, leaving no doubt that the actual target was the real Zabuza, a realization that quickly dawned on the mist ninja.

The sound of the shuriken tearing through the winds made what little time he had to think seem even shorter, while Kakashi's water-logged eyes lit up in surprise.

_No room to dodge without breaking the water prison. Can't block it with Kubikiribōchō_. _I can either run or…_

His eyes reflected the ever-approaching rotation, seeing it over and over and over again. It was here he found the weak-spot he needed.

…_got it!_

Zabuza thrust out a kick towards the inside of the fuma shruiken, carefully angling his foot through the blades to avoid getting sliced. While his grip on the water prison may have been tested, he succeeded in dispelling the shuriken…except it didn't feel like metal.

Smoke exploded around the ninja tool, fading away to reveal Naruto, the _real Naruto_, holding a kunai.

"Got ya."

His words perfectly timed with the dispersion of his previously "knocked out" shadow clone.

Zabuzas eyes widened, as the kunai glinted fatally.

Naruto straightened his arm up, before finally unleashing a baseball-style throw of the knife, well-aimed towards Zabuza's face. The accuracy of the pitch left no doubt in anyone's mind that it could kill.

_Can't block…can't reflect…I'll have to_…

Nearly leaving it too late, Zabuza regretfully ripped his arm away from the water prison, darting out of the kunai's path as the sound of the structure beginning to collapse washed over the arena (as well as Naruto clumsily landing against the stone flooring)

With moisture now provided to the previously malnourished ground, Kakashi took a deep breath of air, before standing up straight, gaze quickly darting between Team Seven.

"…Good job." Was all he said, though even this tiny acknowledgment was enough to brighten up the student's expressions.

His focus was torn of the children by the sound of metal scraping against rock became more and more notable, Zabuza having retrieved the Kubikiribōchō, his beady eyes becoming more defined with murderous intent than they ever had before.

He realized he only had a few seconds left before his chance to kill Kakashi had become completely squandered and made a desperate last dash, the metal of his sword dragging along the rocky ground.

Kakashi casually moved an arm upwards towards his headband, slowly pulling it upwards. Red light began to shine from the revealed left eye, Zabuzas own sinking in fear as the display of crippling crimson pierced his soul and left his heart racing.

_Woah! He's got a red eye! _Naruto beamed, really only paying mind to how badass he thought it looked.

_**Wow…makes sense he keeps that covered up**_. Inner-Sakura snickered.

Sasuke felt his lungs hitch, confusion racing through his brain.

_But...but, that's-_

_The sharingan! _Zabuza mentally cursed himself for letting the battle devolve to this point. Eager to rectify his mistake, he leapt upwards, indenting to bring his hulking weapon down on Kakashi, but by the time his attack hit the ground, the copy ninja was nowhere to be seen.

Zabuza had a second to come to this realization before a fist smashed into the side of his head, dropping him to the ground. An angered attempt at retaliation from the mist ninja was met with a swift kick to the head, followed almost instantaneously by another one to the back of his neck.

Currently seeing double, Zabuza barley managed to block a third kick coming his way, using the wide side of his sword as a shield, before standing up and shoving his shoulder into it, creating a small bit of distance between him and Kakashi.

This spacing was quickly rendered null, as the leaf ninja rushed him down again, arms held up in a boxing guard. Zabuza attempted to break it, but his barrage of punches only served to leave himself open, as Kakashi weaved through the flying fists, delivering another one of his own to the side of Zabuza's head.

A grapple attempt from the demon of the mist was quickly shut down, Kakashi taking the opportunity to grab the man's arm and thrust his knee into his Cubital Fossa, extending the joint far further than it should go.

"_**Aaah!**_" Zabuza screamed, as intense pain shot through the upper-half of his arm, Kakashi not sparring a thought as he transitioned so that his back was facing Zabuzas front, going through hand signs while still keeping hold of the other man's arm. The rocky terrain of the ground started to crumble as he used an earth release technique to summon a rectangular pillar of rock behind the two of them.

_**Slam!**_

The full weight of Zabuzas body was lifted over Kakashis shoulder, before he was slammed onto the ground in a judo hold, no seconds wasted before Kakshis used the injured arm to spin a still-grounded Zabuza into the rock wall, his form connecting with it hard enough to cause small cracks in the rocks.

The missing nin's vision began to swirl, eyesight completely shot from the repeated hits he'd taken. Luckily for him, his hearing was still at least somewhat functional, enough so that he had enough awareness to roll away from the collapsing stone pillar, somersaulting onto his feet only to catch a hook kick to the side of his mouth from Kakashi before being thrown onto the collapsed wall of rock as fast as he got up.

Kakashis red eye glinted as he quickly went through hand seals, creating an O shape around his mouth.

"_Fire Style: Fireball_\- "Small simmering sparks of flame began to bleed through his mask but were quickly snuffed out as a quick-thinking Zabuza kicked up the water of one of the nearby puddles into Kakashis face, causing the man to break into a coughing fit as steam ran down his lungs.

In his fuss to expel all the vapor from his insides, Kakashi turned his back to Zabuza, basically providing his foe with an open target. Drawing Kubikiribōchō, a still disoriented Zabuza leapt towards his opponent, providing a drowsy slash to his back.

"_**Aaah!**_" Kakashi yelled, blood beginning to run down that large line that ran down his chunin jacket.

The watching genin felt their hearts start to race even harder, eyes going wide at the attack.

In the meanwhile, Zabuza had already leapt backwards, hands clapping together in different signs before he finally unleashed a mighty attack.

"_Water release: Geyser Kamikaze!" _He yelled, a ball of thrashing waves forming in his hands, growing larger and larger.

"_Eeck!_" Sakura squealed, realizing the areas natural water gravitating towards the attack, which was clearly growing uncontrollable in Zabuzas hands, bubbling up further and further until…

_**WOOOOOOSH!**_

As if it was a bomb, it exploded, water and waves spiraling around the battle field leaving no one unscathed, first consuming Kakashi and Zabuza himself into the current-hardened gorge. The body of water continued to bulge outwards, hurtling towards the rest of Team Seven.

"_Oh shit!_" Naruto screamed, starting to back away from the ever-approaching ocean, only to get swept up as easy as the rest. Sakuras screams quickly transformed into bubbles under the sea, while Sasuke leapt onto a tree, hand clinging onto the branch hard enough to crack it.

He gravely underestimated the water pressure of the expanding lagoon however, as the branch was torn apart with the rest of the tree, submerging Uchiha in the void of water. His fingertips temporarily broke the surface with fight, but much like anything else nearby, they soon began to sink.

* * *

What had it been? Five minutes, ten minutes? Tazuna hadn't kept track of time, having darted behind a tree early on in the fight. Nervously, he began to wipe clean his spectacles only to notice his hands shaking.

"Ah damn it, I really must be getting old."

_**FWOOOOOOSH**_!

The sound of rushing water alerted him to the fact that this definitely wasn't his cognitive ability failing. Gently pushing the glasses back onto his face, Tazuna poked his head out from behind the tree to see an avalanche of waves hurtling towards him.

"_WHAT THE HEL-_ "Water filled his mouth in place of where words used to be, washing him (and his surroundings) away.

* * *

After around fifteen seconds of nonstop flow, the running river began to dispatch in on itself, quickly dispersing through a narrow but long crevasse in the landscape.

The first sign of life from the aftermath was Zabuza coughing up dirt, the muddy washed grime of the ravine plastered on his face. His limbs felt like rubber, he could barely stand, having to use his sword to prop himself up even slightly.

His gaze lingered on his environs. The three genin kids were scattered around the river bank, either unconscious, dead or too sore to stand. Not a threat. The bridge builder looked awake, but he wasn't getting anywhere anytime soon.

_Must've taken a bad fall_. Zabuza mused, looking over the man, who was trying to scurry away by crawling through the dirt.

Zabuza attempted to follow him, but a nagging sensation kept him frozen, one thought constantly pounding away at his head.

_Where's Kakashi?_

The answer presented it to him quite easily as he saw the leaf jonin face up in the dirt, clearly knocked out. There was only one thing left to do. His chakra was completely shot, barley having enough left for one jutsu, he couldn't risk Kakashi waking up and starting another fight.

Slowly, he trudged over to him, wet sandals collecting residual mud from the riverbank. It took him nearly thirty seconds to make it over to the body. Raising up his sword, he brought it down upon Kakashi, intent on piercing his foes heart.

The blade connected, Zabuza fully collapsing as soon as he felt the sword impale something, eyes snapping shut in exhaustion. He stayed there, on his knees for a few seconds, just letting the cool, soothing air overtake him.

What was he doing?

Oh yeah, bridge builder.

Slowly, he reactivated his vision…only to be met with the sight of a damp log sitting where Kakashis body used to be.

"Son of a…"

_**Crack!**_

Kakashi's knee bashed into his back, planting him face-down in the dirt. Zabuza turned around and tried to throw a punch but it was kicked out of the air, sending a debilitating pain down his arm that was only matched by the kick to the chin that followed.

With an aching back and heavy limbs, Zabuza pushed himself up to face similarly fatigued Kakashi. Both could barley feel their bodies, both were panting heavily. The fight that commenced was nothing like their previous one. As that one had been fast and slick, this one was slow and weighty.

Zabuza threw two slow punches, which were easily dodged through, Kakashis' sharingan glimmering with calculations. Another punch from the mist-ninja was caught, before he was pulled into a knee strike to the gut.

Zabuza fell to his knees but Kakashi never gave up control of the wrist, viciously stamping his foe in the face three times, before delivering a kick that pressed in the elbow, putting even more pain on the already injured ligament.

"_**Aaaahh**_…" For a brief moment, Zabuza converted the burning pain in his face and arm to adrenaline. Kakashi felt his energy level slip, not able to keep the control of the wrist in the face of his foes renewed vigor.

This gave the mist ninja opportunity to attempt another barrage of punches, each one being blocked by a double hand guard. For a brief moment, he thought he was one step ahead of Kakashi, spotting the copy ninja pumping up his leg for what was sure to be a bicycle kick.

Zabuza guessed correctly, dodging to the side of his opponent, only to eat an elbow to the mouth for his troubles, the initial attack having been a feint. As he fell to his knees, red marks began to seep through his face tape, dropping down to the dirt and drying up.

_It's like…he knows what I'm going to do before I do…that eye? Does it have the ability to…?_

He looked up at Kakashi, growling in defiance.

_**Read the future?!**_

Deciding to put his theory to the test, Zabuza pushed himself up off the ground (having to put weight on his damaged arm), facing Kakashi down as the last bit of chakra he had left began to swirl around him, any water residue that was left on the bank building up around him.

His hands snapped to a sign.

Kakashi followed at the exact same time.

Zabuza transitioned to another.

Kakashi almost did it faster than him.

The pace began to build up, both of there hands shuffling into place at speeds that would blur to the normal human eye.

_OX, TIGER, CRANE, OX, TIGER_

_OX, TIGER, CRANE, OX, TIGER_

Despite Zabuza setting the jutsu, it was hard to tell who was copying who.

After around five seconds, the demon of the mist attempted to shatter symmetry, finishing his seals and letting out a roar (which was duplicated perfectly by Kakashi)

"_**WATER RELEASE: WATER DRAGON JUTSU**_" They yelled simultaneously, the nearby puddles forming into long blue dragons, true to the techniques name. The two majestic beasts charged at the others summoner with a mighty roar, only serving to cancel each other out and create an improvised rainfall over the two shinobi.

Rain droplets poured down upon the pair, soaking them from the hair to their sandals. There was a moment of what could be considered peace, as both took the time to breath, until Zabuza yet out a primal yell, running at Kakashi with his hand clearly outstretched.

His footsteps were short, barley even constituting a "run". He could barely stand up with how low his chakra was, it was a miracle he could even walk in the first place. It came as no surprise to anyone that his chin ate yet another shot from Kakashi, the force behind the punch sending Zabuza flying back into the dirt.

With rapid, ragged breaths, Kakashi began to cast hand signs again, eventually clutching one hand in the other before short bolts of electricity began to emit from his fingertips.

Zabuzas eyes widened. He couldn't move.

The lightning became more intense, breaking out into a fully-fledged body of voltage in Kakashis hand, crackling and sizzling through the heavy air.

It was at this time the three students awoke from their temporary knock out, each one spitting up water at an individual pace. Draining some of the fluid out of his hair, Naruto was the first to speak, with an ever eloquent:

"I think Kakashi-Sensei's about to kill that dude!"

He'd be correct as the teacher let out a bone-chilling cry of "_**Lightning release: CHIDORI!**_" before beginning to rush forward at an immobile Zabuza.

The mist ninja braced as the light of the attack drew closer and closer, it's mere presence meters from him already running static down his arms. As he drew nearer, Kakashi yanked his arm back, obviously intending to thrust it back out with renewed force.

Leaves rustled to his side.

Kakashi withdrew the jutsu completely, halting harshly, which turned out to be for the better as a rain of thin, sharp needles descending onto the battlefield, each one piercing into Zabuza.

"Huh?" Naruto spoke what the other two genin were thinking, eyes widening at the sight of Zabuzas own rolling into the back of his head. The scenic sounds of birds chirping became more prominent, as everyone in the immediate vicinity became still and quiet.

_**Fwoosh!**_

Dirt and dust spluttered up next to the demon of the mist, as a masked person body flickered into view. Their gender was indiscernible thanks to the white cover that obscured their face, thin eyeholes cutting through the middle of it.

Naruto quickly turned to the others; eyes slightly angered. "Hey, who the hell's that guy?!"

Sasuke let out a liquidated cough, not having fully recovered from the water jutsu before answering with a raspy tone. "Looks like anbu."

He was correct. The individual wore the mask of the Kirigakure Corpse Processing Unit. He was a what was called a "hunter-nin", one of the elite levels of Anbu that existed in the land of mist.

"On behalf of the land of mist and her grace Mei Terumi, I thank you for your assistance the capture of this wanted criminal. I will be escorting the body back to Kirigakure for verification and burial." The voice was soft and faintly feminine.

Kakashi let out a small barely audible sound of recognition, before beginning to walk towards a possibly injured Tazuna. This was all the person needed to sharply disappear, body flickering away with Zabuza's presumably-dead body in tow.

This diffusion of tension was enough to send Team Seven scampering out of their hiding place like mice.

"_Kakashi-sensei_!" Naruto yelled, as he ran over to him (hyperactivity canceling out any drowsiness or pain he felt)

Kakashi turned to them with (what looked like) a small smile, before crouching down to check on Tazuna.

"Are you alright?"

"Ah, I'm okay but my legs fucked." Kakashi ignored the bluntness of the bridge builders' comments and helped him back up, Tazuna noticeably not putting much weight on his right leg.

"Sasuke, Sakura, can you make sure Tazuna doesn't fall over?"

The two nodded their heads, as Kakashi began to mentally map the path they'd taken in the river rapids.

"We need to go back to camp and col…" He paused. "...coll…_ugh_."

Drowsiness and fatigue finally overtook Kakashi, the man suddenly collapsing into the dirt.

"_**Aah!**_" Naruto and Sakura both screamed while the action only served to inflict more frustration onto Tazuna.

"Oh _jesus Christ_." He sighed, putting a hand to his head. "You two, carry him." He motioned to Naruto and Sakura, perhaps too military-like.

"Hey, who died and made you leader of Team 7?" Naruto yelled, while still following the orders and picking up Kakashi by his head.

"Possibly him, if we don't get him medical attention in time. My daughters a doctor; it'll be an hour walk." Tazuna replied grumpily, the response causing Naruto to incoherently grumble something expletive.

The two assigned genin lifted Kakashi up between them, struggling to carry him. With their constant stumbling, Tazuna predicted it would turn an hours-worth of walking into three-hours' worth of walking.

"Ah, fuck it, I'll take him." The old man finally barked.

"But your leg…" Sakura said, eyes firmly focused on the mans limp.

"Doesn't matter, get him up on my back."

The two students did as told, hoisting Kakashi up onto Tazuna, much like a backpack. With no words shared between them, they all began to walk, sandals smushing through the wet riverbank mud.

An initial assumption would be that all thoughts were blank, everyone in the area adapting to what they'd just seen and this was true for three quarters of the currently-conscious parties. One person's mind was racking itself faster than ever.

Sasuke strayed behind the group, occasionally shooting quick glances up at the comatose Kakashi, or more specifically, his eye.

_The sharingan…how the hell did he get it?!_

* * *

"_**AAAH!**_" Zabuza shot awake, as another needle was ripped from his skin, a surprisingly little amount of blood leaking from the wound.

"Try and stay calm Zabuza-sensei." The "anbu" replied, lax tone the exact opposite of Zabuza's.

"Haku…" He said, having to accommodate to the fact that he wasn't dead. "…I want to go after him."

"I'm sorry Zabuza-sensei, you're in no state to right now."

"…I'm going to fucking kill him." His inflection spiked up in aggressiveness.

"I know." Haku replied, discarding the mask in order to improve his accuracy with the needle removal. His face was feminine but unquestionably male.

At this response, Zabuza realized any more ranting and shouting would akin to a child throwing a tantrum, so he decided to lock it away in his mind, storing the simmering anger until the next time they met.

_Kakashi Hatake…you're a dead man._


	6. How The Mist Fades

"_Matches for sale!"_

_A young, feminine boy called out to the busy streets, holding up the small pack of goods. He looked sickly, clear signs of frostbite yanking at his hands and feet._

"_Matches for sale." His voice began to die down, as mist radiated through his lungs and up through his mouth, tone dying down in the hustle of the crowd. _

"_matches for sale…" It's barley above a whisper now, as the young man draws a match, the fire that radiates off the tip seemingly the only thing he has in the way of warmth. He tries to speak again, but his lungs are heavy. _

_He feels like his voice is lost_

* * *

"_**Aah**__!_" Kakashi shot awake, feeling a sharp, weighty pain coursing down his entire body. The sudden sensation of light is enough to take in by itself, but the flood of memories that rush into his mind almost made him feel nauseated.

"Woah, woah, easy…" A calming female voice suddenly became audible, as a hand that presumably belonged to the same woman pressed him back down onto the bedroll.

"Woah, he's awake!" Naruto's speech attributed more to snapping him out of a half-conscious daze than anything else. Slowly, he began to straighten himself outwards under the slim covers, bringing a palm to his forehead.

To his side was a red-head woman, hair around shoulder-length, blue eyes, in her late twenties from what Kakashi could see. He attempted to ask her name, but due to his still-frazzled brain it only came out as an indecipherable sound of confusion.

The intention remained clear however.

"Mr. Hatake, I'm Meiya, Tazuna's daughter." The woman said, light bouncing off the horns of her thin-rimmed glasses. "I've been acting as your doctor since you arrived."

Kakashi continued to push himself upwards, so that he faced Meiya directly, letting out a small groan of pain before rushing to questions.

"How long was I out."

"_10 years!_" Naruto (voice comically made deeper) called out from what the jonin could now see was the next room of the house.

"Around three days." She replied, ignoring the laughter of the children behind her.

"Anything I should know about?"

"Nothing too notable…" Meiya put a hand to her lips as she thought. "Chakra levels were shot, probably because of your dojutsu, but you've recovered with the circuits undamaged as far as I can tell. That cut on your back may be a problem but it looks pretty shallow."

Kakashi raised a hand to the scratch to test her theory, immediately recoiling as a stinging sensation shot up his back.

"_Ah_."

"Still hurts?"

The man nodded his head.

"That's okay, I've got an oil treatment, it just needs…_**HEY! TETSUJI!**_" She cut herself off, yelling towards the latter part of the house.

A man emerged a few seconds later, smiling brightly as he emerged into the living room. The only notable thing about his fashion sense were the yellow-strapped wrist warmers that ran up his hands, petering out at his elbow, as well as purple hair and a small matching goatee.

"Oh, wow, he's up!" The man said, crouching downwards to bring his face level with Kakashi's. "Hey, I'm Tetsuji, Meiya's husband. Nice to meet you!"

He thrust a hand outward towards Kakashi's own, the action earning him a small slap on the back of the head from his wife.

"Nice job offering a handshake to the guy with the injured back, nimrod." She scoffed, glasses upturning as Tetsuji's face scrunched up in a regretful smile, eyes slanting.

"Ah, right, sorry!"

"Whatever, could you get the hot water running? Mr. Hatake needs to apply the medicine to his back."

"On it!" He replied, his enthusiasm unbecoming of the rather boring situation, his eagerness carrying through to his footsteps as he dashed towards the bathroom.

"I'll go grab the treatment." Meiya said, sitting upwards and letting her light blue kimono extend downwards at her feet. Her newfound absence in the room gave the rest of Team Seven a chance to crowd around their injured teacher.

"Are you feeling alright, sensei?" Sakura asked, looking over him with slight concern.

"I've felt worse." He responded calmly despite the back-length scratch that was sending stinging jolts of pain through him.

"Are you sure your hand didn't fall off after you used the big lightning jutsu?" Naruto asked, prodding at Kakashis arm. "take a look!"

Kakashi raised his hand up from under the covers, Naruto's eyes slightly sagging in disappointment as he saw the appendage fully intact.

"Ah, that means your fight wasn't that cool then. If you lose a hand or a foot or a leg or something, that's how you know it's a seriously badass fight." His face returned to its normal positivity quickly though. "Actually, it's pretty good that you didn't lose it, then you couldn't do hand signs."

The sound of footsteps in nearby room caused Naruto to flip to the side, gaze directed at Tazuna, who let out a small "hmm" of recognition at Kakashi's awakened state.

"Hey, old man! You got any games?"

"Games?"

"Like board games."

Tazuna sighed, eyes dropping slightly downcast his spectacles.

"I've got a shogi board up in the attic."

"Oh, shogi!" Sakura visibly prepped up at the mention of the activity.

"What, you know it?" Naruto responded.

"Yeah, I was the second ranked player in the academy shogi club!" She bragged excitedly; eyes almost sparkling.

"Well, come on, let's play!" Naruto began to run up to the attic (his pace potentially too fast for the cramped living quarters)

"Okay!" Sakura answered, chasing at his tail.

Tazuna uncharacteristically smiled at the two as they rushed up the stairs, his glass-covered eyes flickering with a twinge of reminisce before he disappeared out the back door, whistling along as he went.

That left Sasuke and Kakashi in the room together, and the older man immediately realized that this wasn't coincidental. The tension became almost tangible, it's frost carrying over from Sasuke's icy demeanor.

"Where'd you get that eye?" Sasuke asked, calmness intended but not delivered, a clear simmering anger biting at his tone. Kakashi said nothing, silence fanning the flames of Sasukes rage. "_**The sharingan is the trademark of the Uchiha clan, where did you get it?!**_"

Sasuke had not yelled like that in five years.

"It was a gift from a friend." Was all he got in response, but it was enough to satiate his initial curiosity, at least for now.

"…whatever, what's your ability?"

"Hm?"

"Your ability. Every sharingan has an ability specific to the user, what's yours?"

"Enhanced perception and memory past the normal limits of the sharingan. In short, the ability to copy jutsu."

Sasuke accepted the answer, but his grimace never wore off. Instead, he turned his gaze sideways, still stewing with slight anger. He stood still like a statue for a few seconds, before walking off, the only sound in the whole house being his footsteps against the raised wood flooring.

Despite no words being spoken, Kakashi could almost feel the emotions that were radiating from the boy.

It felt like sorrow.

* * *

Dust was kicked up from even the slightest step in Tazunas attic, the abundant grime causing Naruto break out into several coughing fits.

"Have you found it yet?" The Uzumaki boy barked from in-between his bouts of sneezing.

"…No…" Sakura replied, more focused on digging through the horde of items that lay about the loft. Her flashlight barley peeked through the dusk-coated surroundings.

"Well, you better hurry up, the torch isn't gonna last much longer." Naruto said, correct in his assumption about the primitive-object which, while having been readily incorporated into the shinobi marketplace, were not good at illuminating places for more than ten minutes at a time.

Sakura was too focused on attempting to find the shogi board to really bother making conversation with Naruto, something the boy deeply resented. Huffing loudly, he folded his arms over each other and attempted to turn sideways.

This proved to be a fatal mistake, as even the smallest movement was too much for the cramped room. The blonde let out a sharp shriek as he felt his arm knock something over.

"_Aaah!_"

_**BAM!**_

The sound of an object slamming against the ground was instantly recognizable, made worse by Naruto's frightened jumping. It did nothing to phase Sakura, who's hand had brushed over what felt like the box of a shogi board.

Triumphantly, she ripped it out of the clutter while turning the torch back to Naruto.

"Found it!"

What she saw was Naruto curled up into a ball on the floor, next to what appeared to be a picture frame, clutching a kunai to his chest.

"What are you doing?"

"I knocked something over."

"…You knocked a picture frame off an old wardrobe."

"Hey!" Naruto shot back to her, fiery glare flaming with embarrassment over fury. "When you can't see, you don't know what it is! Maybe it was a bomb!"

"And if it was you would've rolled up into a ball right next to it?"

Naruto had no response.

Reaching downwards, Sakura clutched the smooth but textured wood of the frame, flipping it over. The glass was covered in dust, the kunoichi having to smooth a finger through it just to get a visible image.

What she saw was a picture of a broadly smiling Tazuna, flanked by Meiya on his side along with a woman of similar age to him, and a boy she didn't recognize. Her fingers inquisitively traced over the frame, eventually feeling paper crackle under her joints.

Turning it over, she uncovered a small slip of card on the back that read.

"_**Father's Day"**_

"Hey, that's the bridge builder" Naruto mused, not really being able to comprehend the context of the picture. He harshly prodded at the other boy's face, small remnants of dust coating his fingertip. "is that Tetsuji when he was younger?"

"No, he's got different hair…and a different face…and a different everything. I think it's his son."

"But he doesn't have a son."

"Yeah but he might've…" Sakura paused, favoring a "slit throat" motion instead of actually saying the words.

"He kicked it?"

"Yeah, probably the same with his wife." The girl speculated sadly, placing the photo back on the shelf, before turning to Naruto with the shogi board snugly slung under her arm. "We should probably go down; the torch is getting dim."

"Yeah, yeah…" He replied, opening up the attic door. Plush streaks of light began to illuminate the upper room further, putting its small size into perspective, although any time spent on this sight was menial, as the two began to climb down the folding staircase.

Any thoughts about the picture were left cramped up there for the time being.

* * *

The biggest struggle Kakashi Hatake had to face in his sixteen-year career as a ninja may just have been not bankrupting this families house by leaving the hot water running in the shower. Any weight or pain from his joints completely lifted from his body, the man feeling just as good as he did prior to being slashed in the back by a seversword.

Reluctantly, he grasped a hand on the water handle and turned it downwards, ceasing the flow of hot liquid from the showerhead.

He clamped his body against the tiling of the shower walls, hoping to conserve some of the warmth that they had preserved. This lasted all of thirty seconds before the shivering set in and he was forced to unenthusiastically leave the bath that was being used as a shower.

Mask, jacket, pants, dressed.

Running the towel through his wet hair, Kakashi trudged through the house, not quite being able to shake the feeling of being waterlogged with his mind still clinging to the drug-like high of stepping into the shower.

Emerging into the living room, his only exposed eye rested on the sight of Sakura and Naruto playing Shogi while Sasuke sat emotionless in a chair to their right. When he said "Sakura and Naruto were playing" it was more accurately Sakura playing against herself with her constantly having to tell Naruto what moves he was even allowed to make within the confines of the game.

"…No, you have to put that one there." She said, Naruto following her instructions by placing the piece exactly where she said. The rooms tone was bleak and depressing, any conversation that occurred in it sounding drab and slightly miserable.

Kakashi had no interest in watching a 13-year old girl playing a one-way game and he suspected she didn't either so, exhaling to get the trios attention, he finally spoke.

"Alright, meet me outside, we're going to have a lesson."

All three shot him confused stares, with only Naruto being able to properly vocalize what they were thinking.

"But, Kakashi-sensei, you're all wrecked up and stuff." The blonde snapped back; eyes enlarged with confusion.

"Yes, and I don't really have to do anything except yell at you, so it doesn't really matter."

The three all simultaneously paused, taking time to comprehend Kakashis words before they all sat up (Sakura in annoyance, Naruto in excitement and Sasuke in indifference).

"So, where are we going?" The Uzumaki boy asked, smiling brightly.

"Well, it's not going to be a hike" Kakashi lazily stepped forward, opening the back door and letting the light breeze from the family's "backyard" blow in his face. See, Tazuna had built a house for himself on the very outskirts of the edge of town (it was the only free-land available at the time) which meant the back of the house fully connected to the spiraling forest that adorned the edge of the village.

The genin hadn't set foot out of the house (despite the three days they'd spent there), so the spectacle of the looming forest depths was still fresh, mystically drawing their eyes to the misty emerald treetops.

_**Crack**_!

Small chips of wood began to break under the soles of Kakashis feet, as he began to walk up the tree.

All three pairs of the genins eyes widened.

There he stood, perfectly perpendicular on the tree trunk. It was almost like he was a branch himself he stuck out so well. However, while this discovery was enough to completely shock two of the three ninjas watching him, Kakashi quickly got bored, crouching horizontally and looking at the students.

"This is what we'll be learning today, it will teach you the basics of chakra control." The older man spoke, quickly jumping down from his perch and standing up straight.

"_Woah!_" Naruto exclaimed, mind still trying to completely wrap itself around what he'd just seen.

"See, when you heavily focus chakra to your feet, or arms or wherever, it creates a magnetic pull between you and other solid forces, almost like you're creating your own gravity."

Naruto was still bug-eyed in amazement, even while his squadmates own whimsy had long since worn off. Eye fixed and focused, Kakashi made his way over to another tree, gently pressing his sole towards the crinkling bark. Small waves of chakra expelled from his foot, although they were entirely feint.

"See, if the chakra levels too small, your feet slip." He demonstrated this by grazing his foot down the trunk, the three students observing how the chakra strands attempted (and failed) to cling onto it. "but if you use too much, the force becomes too intense and you bounce off.

His leg (and by extension, he himself) were suddenly thrown backwards, an explosion of chakra denting the root of the tree. He swiveled to face his students, eye and expression softening out.

"I'm going to take a walk; I'll see you in thirty minutes."

With that, he began to stride away, sticking a hand in his pocket much to the genins anger and/or surprise. Characteristically, it was Naruto who began talking first.

"Hey! You aren't even going to watch us?"

Kakashi apathetically waved his free hand backwards, not even turning around to talk to the three. "I'll be back to see how you're going soon, just give it a try."

The young boy had no counterargument, simply watching on as his teacher disappeared through the mesh screen door that guarded entry to Tazunas house.

Naruto quickly turned back around to face the tree, the airs breeze reinvigorating a new, burning determination within him. He braced his body, fully preparing for a full-on sprint as chakra began to swirl around his feet.

"Just give it a try huh? Well, I'm gonna ace it on the _**first**_." He began to run at the tree, chakra below him dinting the ground.

"Wait, Naruto, _don't!_" Sakura attempted to warn him, realizing just how much chakra he was bumping into his feet, but it was too late, as the boy leapt at the tree, foot extended proudly.

_**BOOM!**_

Sakura held her hands up to her mouth while Sasuke just winced as Naruto ricocheted off the tree like a bullet, smashing against the ground _hard_. It was comical how many times he bounced off the ground (the flooring acting as if it was a trampoline).

"_**Ah!**_" He yelled, not really being able to register the hit before his own natural momentum threw him back up into the ground.

"_**Ah**_!' An identical shriek was emitted, as he bounced once again.

"_**Ah**_!" Yet another cry of pain signaled the end of his war with gravity, as the Uzumaki boy began to slow down, slowly rolling across the dirt-covered turf before what little force he had behind him was halted by the wide wooden step of Tazuna's house.

"_Ohh_." He groaned; eyes more white than anything else. Maybe he wasn't going to ace it on the first try.

* * *

Kakashi hadn't really taken the time to look over the house he'd been staying in, but he had to admit it was nicely quaint (maybe not intentionally). The décor was obviously scrappy and cheap, but he supposed it only added to the charm.

The smell of boiling tea drew Kakashi into the living room, where he found Meiya and Tetsuji sweltering said brew, making use of an old, slightly dinky teapot and a bag of unlabeled tea leaves.

"Tetsuji, shake it around a bit!"

"Okay, okay, it's hot!"

The couple seemed so focused on the tea-making process that Kakashis presence in the room was completely lost on them, the copy ninja having to fake an exhale to get a semblance of their attention.

"Oh, hey Mr. Hatake!" Tetsuji said, shaky hand resting on the kettle.

"Steady it." Meiya scolded.

"I'm trying to steady it!" His attention snapped back to his wife; eyes heavy with frustration. "Don't make me multitask."

She looked back at him unimpressed. "Well, I'll talk to Mr. Hatake, you keep the pot brewing."

"Fine."

Meiya's head turned forty-five degrees to face the older man, spectacles fogged up from the steam that the teapot emitted.

"What is it Mr. Hatake?" She sounded almost annoyed, which caught Kakashi somewhat off-guard.

"Um…is their…you can call me Kakashi, by the way." He stumbled through his words.

"What is it Kakashi?" This time any annoyance in her voice was replaced by playful banter.

"I just wanted to ask, is the library near the city square still open? I haven't been here in fifteen years."

"It's down the road from where it used to be, thanks to big man Gato running it dry and seizing the funding. Small, oval shaped, one-story building."

"I think I'll take a walk then."

Meiya raised an eyebrow, while Tetsuji temporarily looked up from the kettle with questioning look.

"Are you sure you should, dude? I mean, you should still be pretty roughed up."

"I'll be okay." Was all Kakashi said as he began to exit the house.

Fresh air filled his lungs and cleared his mind as he set out on the dirt path that led to town. He may not have been to the land of waves for a while, but he knew his way around its suburbia. It wasn't a big place, and you could walk from one end to the other in twenty minutes if you were fast.

One thought had been nagging at him all morning and it had to do with the boy in the mask that he'd seen a few minutes before he passed out.

_A rain of thin, sharp needles descending onto the battlefield, each one piercing into Zabuza._

As soon as it happened, he'd realized something was off. The needles missed the throat, eyes and heart, yet were too precise for this to be accidental. To add to this, any competent anbu (which this one clearly was judging by the needles accuracy) would've followed up on the attack by attacking one of the vitals, just to confirm the kill. At best, the "anbu" had been a clumsy but lucky body snatcher, who wanted to claim Zabuzas bounty. At worst, Zabuza had an unknown assistant. Kakashi would find out sure enough.

The sound of stones kicking out from under his feet alerted him to his surroundings. He was far gone from the forest now, finally reaching the stone pathways of the village. His eyes widened.

He'd never seen a town quite as run down as this one.

Not a single building was built up more than two stories (which made him appreciate Tazuna's house a little more). Litter blew through the streets, small pieces of wrapping paper and naperies bumping against his feet like he was the center of gravity in this small, sad, town.

His vision grazed over the few people that occupied the streets. Not a single smile could be seen, instead every occupant of the wave looked defeated. _Defeated._ That was really the only word to describe it.

He continued to walk, the connection of his sandals with the concrete sidewalk the only sound that mattered. Having not been here for years, Kakashi called upon his memories of old as a way to illuminate his path through the town (although so much had changed, it was still difficult)

The smell of seawater drifted through the air, bring forth of wave of nostalgia upon Kakashi's shoulders. He recognized the street; this was where the library used to be…

"_Gee, what's taking him so long?! It's just a lousy document!" A young, goggle-clad boy said slumped down on the long stone steps. _

"_Sensei probably got lost in there. He's not great at reading directions…" A girl replied, stripes of purple running down her cheeks. _

"_Give him time." Was all a standing, masked boy said, looking away from his teammates. _

"_Oh, I've given he time Kakashi." The other boy barked, mischievous intent swirling around his eyes. "…__**MINATO-SENSEI! THE MIST IS ATTACKING!"**_

"_Shut up! You'll get us in trouble." Kakashi ordered. Neither of the other two heeded his pleas. _

"_MINATO-SENSEI, THE MIST NINJA ARE ABOUT TO DROP RAIN BOMBS ON AND US AND WE'RE GONNA __**DIE!**__" The girl yelled, struggling to hold back laughter. _

_As much as he tried to calm the other two down, Kakashi's directions fell silent in the face of the their gradually increasing laughter._

_The circle-shaped building._

Kakashi snapped out of his reminiscence, instead looking past where the towering library used to be to see a tiny, oval building on the end of the road. He looked towards space on the street where the old one had been, only to be met with the sigh of a torn down and grimaced landmass.

Nothing had been built up from it, instead it was a mangy block of land covered in trash and infested by rats. Any foundation was minimal, as the patch of turf was mainly the earth's natural dirt.

Kakashi kept walking.

* * *

"Woah, this is so weird!" Sakura hung upside down from a tree-branch, letting the wind gently blow through her hair. It was like she had complete control up here, nothing could touch her or hit her or yell at her or…

Her pink locks began to drape down, leaving her forehead exposed with immediate self-consciousness setting in. Hands shot up to try and pull her hair back to normal, but as a result, she began to lose her footing.

_**Crack!**_

She just barely managed to keep consistent chakra flow to her feet, almost tipping off the tree completely. It would be embarrassing, but when she looked at the state of her teammates well…

"Haha! Sasuke can't climb the tree!" Naruto laughed from his position on the ground.

"Shut up, neither can you." Sasuke hissed venomously, looking about ready to punch the boy next to him.

"Yeah and _**neither can you!**_" Naruto rubbed it in again, forgoing all self-worth just to rib his rival some more. Said rival took a pause, before standing up straight suddenly enough that Naruto backed away in fear that Sasuke was legitimately going to start throwing.

Instead, the Uchiha ripped a kunai from his pouch and pointed it upside the outstretching trunk.

"…The person who can get their kunai to the highest point on the tree wins."

It took a few seconds for the other ninja to process his words, before he broke out into a toothy grin.

"Deal."

Naruto stood up to meet him, only to retrieve a kunai and place it as high as he could reach. Sasuke responded by jumping upwards (using the tree trunk for leverage) and imbedding his kunai into a higher perch.

The hyperactive boy soon realized by looking at the knife that he would need to try a little harder to beat Sasuke in this competition. Gritting his teeth, chakra began to flow into his feet as he ran full steam ahead towards his next goal.

* * *

Damp floormats sunk beneath Kakashis as he set foot in the murky, barley-lit library. It's dumpiness was in-line with the rest of the wave, torn-wallpaper and shaggy carpeting feeling not at all uncharacteristic with the location.

A small but long shelf ran through the center of the room, many of the books contained within it boasting busted spines and ripped corners.

"Hello, what can I help you with…" A voice meekly echoed through library, directing Kakashi's attention towards the front counter. The man made his way over there quickly, still getting used to the unpleasant sinking of the carpet.

"Do you have the most recent land of mist digest?" He asked to the young and scrawny counterman.

"I do, but it's not-borrowable. Fuckers were stingy with the amount they gave me this time. Under that fucking Terumi girl, I swear I get less and less each month…" He groaned, handing Kakashi a thick booklet of paper, which was promptly swiped through.

The jonins eye scanned through the pages, specifically looking for one blotted headline. Over and over the paper fell in on itself, not containing what he was looking for, until he finally spotted it:

_**CONFIRMED BOUNTIES:**_

Quickly flipping to the front of the page to make sure the date lined up with him and Zabuza's fight, he flicked the stack of pages back to the heading and ran down the names he could see.

_J…K…L…M._

To further coordinate his vison, he dragged a finger down the pamphlet, the tip of it somewhat smearing the poorly inscribed ink. Through all the names, he could not mind Momoichi, Zabuza.

_That confirms it, the hunter-nin must've been an assistant of some kind. _

To think he either had an inside ninja on the anbu, or at least one with the precise ability that was shown set off a train of thought in Kakashi's head. There was a lot he didn't know about Zabuza Momochi. Motivation, family history, pure skillset…

"Oh, you're a Konoha man." The librarian suddenly blurted, detracting him from his mindscape, at least for the moment.

"Yep."

"I'm from Konoha too, yeah, moved here a few months after the big fox attack. Makes you want to get away from it all when you see some big-ass nine tail monstrosity charging at your apartment block. Names Ojiro Azawa" The man spoke with surprisingly spritely look in his eye, barley focusing on Kakashi.

"Hm. Land of Waves treating you well?" The still-residing Konoha shinobi asked, his exposed eye practically simmering with rhetoric.

"Pfft, as if." He groaned, scratching at the back of his neck. "Not after Gato moved in anyway, guy practically ransacked the place. It's essentially a ghost town now except all the ghosts yell at me for not having the same books the old library used to."

"…Say, speaking of books, do you happen to have anything at all about "Zabuza Momochi"?"

Ojiros face visibly tensed up from just the name, obviously stiffening up despite his attempts to hide any emotional reaction.

"…Nah, man, w-wouldn't know…I mean, _I don't think there's anything under that name_, could be but if it's here and I've seen it, I haven't seen it, you know what I'm saying?" His teeth were visibly chattering which only intensified under Kakashi's gaze.

"Uh-huh."

That was all it took for the youthful man to completely crack, practically ripping a drawer out from under the counter before he slammed a thick, blue booklet into Kakashis chest.

"Here! It's yours, forever! I don't want it anymore, I thought I did but I didn't!" He cried, almost literally as his moist eyes began to wobble in their sockets. Despite this showing however, Kakashi's attention was firmly locked on the cover of the pamphlet.

"And this is…"

"His manifesto!" The librarian yelled, slamming his hands upon the front desk. "Released before he did it, before the clock struck twelve, before all of it! Terumi banned it in the mist, if they know I have it, they'll fucking lock me up and throw away the key!" Ojiro's cries swiftly devolved into full-blown hysterics. "Take it, take it and run dude!"

Kakashi calmly walked away from the library, leaving a panic-stricken man in his wake and an interesting read tucked behind his vest. The only change he felt within him was the breeze of the cold, wave air.

"Haha, wait till he sees this." Two childish voices laughed to themselves as they observed their handiwork. Said handiwork was in the form of a massive piece of street art that illustrated a man who Kakashi assumed was Gato sat next to a long measuring stick.

Not only did it dwarf him, but another ruler pointed at his crotch adorned by big bold lettering that read.

_**HE CAN'T STACK UP IN ANY WAY! **_

Seeing as his footsteps were the only other sound in the barren streets, the two youth's attention was quickly diverted towards him. He noticed both were masked, presumably to hide their identities in case they ran into Gato's gang.

Their laughter died down, eyes staring at Kakashi with an attempt to figure out if they should be scared or pleased. A two-finger salute from the leaf ninja quenched their fears, as the older man continued to walk away. Sad as it was, that may have been the most life he'd seen from the village since he started his stay here.

* * *

_Closer._

Closer and closer Naruto crawled up the tree, his jaw clenching under the pressure of his chakra. He was being _very careful _not to expend himself too much, under the risk that it would lead to him bouncing off the tree.

Sasuke in the meanwhile, seemed almost too scared to properly begin scaling the tree as the chakra that radiated from his feet seemed lax and weak, especially in comparison to Naruto's.

_**BOOM!**_

"AAAAH!"

Maybe that was for the best, a fact realized by the Uchiha as he saw Naruto crash into the dirt for the gazillioninth time. This case of crash and burn was swiftly accompanied by the sound of the boy's groans.

"_Ahhhh_! Sakura, there's gotta be some trick you're not telling us about, that's how you can do it!" He bellowed pointing an unenthusiastic but accusing finger at a perched Sakura, who had been uninterestedly running a finger through her pink curls for the better part of ten minutes now.

"Maybe there is, I wouldn't know, 'cause I don't know how you two are processing the technique."

Sasuke glared upwards at her, eyes focused.

"Well…just tell us how you're doing it."

The sentence and positioning of ger squadmates would normally be answered by the girl, but something about it resonated with her. For the first time in her life, Sakura sensed she was on the top side of a power dynamic, and when someone like that is faced with power, they tend to begin tripping.

"I dunno', seems kinda like cheating to me…" She mused, secretly loving the scowl that broke out on Sasuke's face.

_**Yeah, take that jerk! Who's "useless" now?!**_

"But Sakura, that's not fair, you've got an advantage 'tabyo!" Naruto protested.

"Yeah, well, maybe if you can put your kunai on my level, then I'll fill one of you in on the secret." Her mischievous smile quickly transferred to Naruto, giving him the push, he needed to stand back onto his feet.

"Alright, you're on!" He bellowed, proudly thrusting his fist outward and beginning to build chakra back up through his base.

"I see everything's going well here." Kakashi's voice suddenly appeared, attracting the attention of all three ninjas.

"Yep!" Naruto replied, more focused on climbing the tree than listening to his teacher. Sasuke simply ignored Kakashi's existence, his feet beginning to feel somewhat light from repeated chakra use.

The only one to really acknowledge the man's presence was Sakura, who couldn't help herself shooting glances towards him, hoping he would figure out she'd been able to do it. He easily caught one of these glances, looking up at her positioning and letting lose what was obviously a smile.

"Good work Sakura."

This, along with the power trip she was already on were enough to make the kunoichi dizzy with excitement.

"_**AAAAH!**_" Her focus quickly turned to Naruto, who attempt another mad-sprint up the tree, making it around six feet up the trunk before he was thrown away like a magnet trying to be pressed into another magnet.

Eating dirt once more, he found his face foot-level with Kakashi, looking up at the jonin with disappointed eyes. He fully expected either laughter or belittling from his teacher, but instead, he was helped up off the dirt and brushed down.

"When you're walking up the tree, think of it not vertically, but horizontally, like a tightrope. Just try to keep balance for a little bit."

At first, the Uzumaki boy was surprised at the fact he'd been offered advice at all, but he quickly rebounded, breaking out into a smile.

"Alright! Thanks, Kakashi-Sensei!"

"No problem. I'll be upstairs if you need me." He replied, positive yet monotone before beginning to walk away, hand clutching at the blue book to his side. In the meanwhile, Naruto began to look past his classmates and the forest itself with his eyes setting upon one thing.

The huge tree that lay _**just **_outside the depths of the forest.

It towered over its contemporaries, like a tower in the distance, its emerald leaves singing a song of winter air and twilight-lit skies. Almost instinctively, Naruto raised his hand up to it before clenching his fist around the branches, trying to grasp it despite the vastness that lay between the two.

He was going to climb that tree.

* * *

_Shinobi are tools. _

_Tools to support an agenda, tools of war, tools of the people at the top. _

_What's funny to me, is that the people at the top can throwaway lives like food scraps, and then get mad when you do the same thing. _

"Hey Zabuza!" Two young boys ran towards him, foreheads protected by the metallic headband of the mist.

"Hey." Was all he replied, as the two began to walk by his side.

One of them, a bowl-cut blonde, looked over his friend, laughing at Zabuza's appearance.

"What's with the tape dude?"

Zabuza's eyes grew fierce but also playfully defensive.

"It's discretion tape, my dad says you have to have it if you're going to be a ninja, because other ninja are gonna have harder time making out your face."

"…Seems kinda lame." The other one of his friends, a taller, brunette boy, said.

"Yeah, well, you need it if you're going to be one of the seven swordsmen."

_The seven swordsmen of the mist. The land of mists pride and joy. A group of the most elite swordsmen (and swordswomen, which rendered the name dismissive) found anywhere over the elemental nations. _

_Recently one of the members, Kisame Hoshigaki. had gone rouge, the reason I later found out being "Unforeseen mental anguish and anxiety"._

_Made sense in hindsight. _

_He was young, fifteen when he joined the swordsman and barley eighteen when he left. As a result, they wanted a young, new upstart to take his place. The fact that our classes' examinations were mandatory should've been a red flag, but out we went, the hook of celebrity being too much for us to pass up._

In the classroom, Zabuza's delight was concealed by his bandages, as the seven swordsmen came up to answer questions and even occasionally joke around with the class. For the two-hour long period until lunch break, the future demon of the mist was over the moon.

He and his friends munched on their food, as they lay about the tree that oversaw the river, occasionally passing each other a shrimp chip or a water biscuit topped with fresh whitebait.

"Imagine if we're all so good that they have to become the nine swordsmen of the mist, just to accommodate us." That was Hyogi Ninamura, Zabuza's (at this point) lifelong best friend, a boy who was constantly bouncing with optimism.

"Yeah, then what if they become the twenty swordsmen of the mist." Zabuza joked back, turning to his friend with a carefree look in his eyes. "It'll feel a little less special then won't it?"

Hyogi laughed, returning his gaze to the riverbank.

"Well, whoever get's in has to send the other two souvenirs from _wherever_ they go on their missions." A standing boy said, while he leaned back against the tree. This was Ochabo Nomura. Not the brightest boy, but physically adept enough that he exceled at taijutsu and ninjutsu.

"Wanna skip a stone?" Hyogi asked, sitting up off the ground and picking up a smooth, puck-shaped rock he'd been eying.

"I dunno." Zabuza replied, staying fixed on the ground.

"Oh, come on, one more time before we become proper swordsmen." Ochabo said, with a hint of force.

"Fine." Zabuza lazily stood up, grasping the rock in his palm. He threw it upwards a few times, getting a feel for its weight before rearing his elbow back and throwing it outwards, releasing the stone from his grasp.

_**TISH.**_

_**TISH.**_

_**TISH.**_

_**TISH.**_

_**TISH.**_

_**TISH.**_

_**TISH.**_

_**TISH.**_

_**TISH.**_

_**TISH.**_

_**TISH.**_

_**TISH.**_

_**TISH.**_

_**TISH.**_

The rock finally sunk downwards, its momentum fizzling out like the bubbles in the water.

"Woah, fourteen skips, that's the lucky number!" Hyogi exclaimed with stars in his eyes, turning back to his bandaged friend. "I'm sure you're gonna get in now Zabuza!'

_Sometimes, I wondered what would've happened if I hadn't skipped that stone. See, the hook may have been buttered up, gleaming in a way that makes you think it's not dangerous, but it's still a hook, it's still sharp, and once it grabs onto you it doesn't let go. _

"W-what?" Zabuza's voice was low, as he struggled to comprehend the information he'd just learnt. The air in the mist academy battle area was heavy on his lungs. Across him stood Hyogi, just as lost and confused by the rules set out as his friend was…at least that's what he showed.

"You heard me…the first one to kill the other wins. If either of you refuse, you will both be killed so it's advised that one of you kills the other instead of wasting both of your lives." Fuguki Suikazan delivered this information to the two teens as if he was telling them they'd scored a B on some test that didn't matter.

Zabuza's breathing began to intensify, his body frozen in pain and fear.

Then he saw it.

A previously downcast Hyogi looked up at him, tears in his eyes.

"I'm sorry Zabuza." The boy said, voice shaking.

All the other ninja could muster up was a quiet, broken murmur.

"Don't"

_When an animal is backed into a corner it will lash out. That's a rule of nature. Now us humans, well, we like to think we're above it, but really, we're the same. Push a human against a wall and watch how quickly they snap._

Hyogi began to charge at Zabuza, a twisted bloodlust pouring from his eyes. His target just stood still, hoping, no, **praying**, that he would either wake up or Hyogi would just stop running.

_You see it in the eyes, windows to the soul and all that. When a person's not ready to die, they start looking like an animal. _

Those eyes.

Zabuza couldn't snap himself out of it.

Eyes that had been once filled with humor and charm were now fully enveloped by fear and cruelty. There was nothing human about those eyes.

_**There was nothing human about those eyes**_.

Hyogi reached his arm out to try and harm Zabuza. Whether he was trying to gouge the eyes or choke Zabuza out was indiscernible as his technique was non-existent. Zabuza's wasn't. The taped-boy's leg shot out sharply, shattering Hyogi's arm under his knee and sending his friend sharply down to the ground.

Now, Zabuza initial thoughts were to snap the neck. Painless, fast, a respectful end, nothing could be better in this situation. He leapt onto Hyogis body, gripping both sides of his head in preparation.

Only he saw the eyes again.

Hazel-filled spirals filled with regret, terror, kinship, hatred, dread and everything in between that selection of emotions. Something about them deeply disturbed Zabuza. He wanted them to go away.

_That's the real fucked up thing about the trials. No knife, no weapons. Seems counterintuitive for the swordsman of the mist but they want to judge you. They want to see you backed up to a corner with nothing. _

_Looking back at it now, with combat training in-mind I should've gouged him, but when you're a little kid, well, those eyes are really goddamn scary. _

_**Bam!**_

Zabuza's knuckle smashed into Hyogi's face, breaking his nose easily. Hyogi responded by doing the worst thing he possibly could in this situation. He reopened his eyes.

_**Bam!**_

Zabuza thumped him again. Same result.

_**Bam!**_

This time the punch concussed his friend, which only exemplified the problem. Hyogi lost all sound mental functions, eyes reopening instinctively…again and again and again.

_**BAM!**_

_**BAM!**_

_**BAM!**_

Tears streamed down Zabuza's face as he continued to drive his fist into Hyogi's face. It felt like an eternity, yet he could never keep the eyes shut, every punch being met with that sharp, stinging gaze once more.

_I never got his eyes to close. Juzo ripped me away before I could do anything more. It wasn't out of compassion or disgust, Hyogi had just been long-dead so it was pointless. That was the first time I passed out covered in someone's blood._

"_**HEY MEIYA!**_" Tetsuji's voice snapped Kakashi out of the manifesto, the older man not realizing how deep he'd gone into the book until he'd been taken out of it.

"_**YEAH?!**_"

"_**WE GOT ANYMORE DOENJANG?!**_" Instead of taking two minutes to go downstairs and talk to his wife, Tetsuji had decided that his time was extremely valuable and not worth wasting. In actuality: Tetsuji was feeling lazy and decided he just needed to yell.

"_**NOPE!"**_

"_**OKAY, I'LL ADD IT TO THE LIST**_!" With this, he turned back to Kakashi through the doorframe with a sympathetic smile. "Sorry."

Kakashi just nodded his head.

* * *

_Closer._

_Closer. _

Naruto felt his grip on the tree slipping, Kakashi's technique only being able to keep him steady for so long. It was like he was no longer climbing the tree with his chakra, instead he was just climbing like he would regularly.

He reached his hand up, trying to fully extend himself up as high as he could to correspond with his ever-slipping grip.

_**SNIKT!**_

The kunai stuck just above Sakuras head.

Naruto didn't really have time to appreciate his victory before he fell to the floor, landing flat on his back.

"_Oohh_." He groaned, the brunt-force pain that coursed through him beginning to feel all too familiar. The only thing that soothed it was the fact that he had the secret now and Sasuke (who had been a few feet below) didn't.

Speaking of the secret, he felt Sakuras hand grasp his, pulling him up to his feet.

"Good job Nar- "

"Tellmethesecret!" He blurted, almost too fast for her to properly respond.

"Alright, alright, what you have to do is…"

Sasuke liked to think he had extremely good hearing, but Sakura's "secret" soon devolved into indecipherable whispers that he had no chance of interpreting. The smile that broke out on Naruto's face only served to piss him off more.

Sakura left to go inside around a minute later, presumably out of boredom, Sasuke didn't care. What Sasuke did care about was the fact that he'd slipped off the tree yet again when Naruto was making fine progress.

Something lit up under him. He didn't know what, but his previously lax chakra control stiffened up and he began to _**sprint **_up the tree trunk, completely focused on reaching Naruto's level. He ran higher and higher until his rival was just in arms reach, sticking his limb out just in front of him.

"Huh?" Naruto exclaimed, as he felt Sasuke's arm brush past his head and imbedded the kunai _just _above where Naruto had previously stuck his. He may have begun to fall downwards, but he did it, surpassing where Naruto had placed his.

Waiting until Sasuke hit the ground, Naruto simply ripped his kunai out and placed it a few notches above the other. Sasuke looked up, the shit-eating grin that reflected back not making it easy before his eyes darted to the side and he mumbled:

"Tell me the secret."

Naruto's smug smile intensified. "I didn't get that, what'd you say?"

"I said _**tell me the secret**_." Sasuke replied with venom.

Naruto's smile grew brighter than what was previously thought possible by human facial features. "What's the magic word?"

The Uchiha didn't know if he was willing to suck up his pride and say it. It took him a full thirty seconds to even show a hint of life, before he took a deep breath, closed his eyes and said:

"Tell me the secret, _please._"

In saying this, he actually surprised Naruto, who had been one-billion percent sure that this was not going to be said.

"…okay." The blonde replied, promptly jumping down from the tree (childishly hurting his knees in the process). He leaned in close to Sasuke's ear, covering his mouth with one of his hands.

"Wait, why are you whispering it? I'm the only other person here."

Naruto looked back at him like he was an idiot before his vision scanned the surroundings. Quietly, he turned back to Sasuke and whispered, tone not joking in the slightest…

"Spies…"

"…If their spies, I'm pretty sure they know how to climb trees."

"Yeah, well, whatever, maybe I won't tell you the secret. Maybe you're a spy and that's why you want it so bad." Naruto looked back at Sasuke like he'd just ascended to a higher-tier of philosophy than that which was previously known in the ninja world and unfortunately, due to the information that he had, Sasuke was forced to treat him like it.

"…Okay fine, whisper it." He groaned, letting out a sigh. Naruto had won this round.

* * *

_I think it was the Second Kazekage who wrote the essay on the "theory of adaption". It said that creatures who were able to adapt to their surroundings, would always survive while those who didn't died off. _

_**Crack!**_

Ochabo's neck snapped beneath Zabuza's arms, his eyes going completely blank.

_It was an intentionally cruel process. You never knew when you were going to get called up or even on what day the next round would be. All you knew was if your name was called out by the swordsmen, you were either leaving a murderer or not leaving at all._

_See, every day I'd go out there knowing I was walking into death, but the others, even the others that killed…_

_**CRACK!**_

A young boys neck shattered under Zabuza's boot.

_Just._

"_**AAAAH!**_"

While previously being pinned down, Zabuza took the advantage in her grief and lunged at her eyes.

_Couldn't. _

_**BAM!**_

Punches relentlessly mowed down upon a boy's face, each attack pushing him closer and closer to the light.

_Grasp it. _

_Everyday they'd have those same eyes and every time I'd kill them. I killed them all. _

_I made it to the swordsmen, obviously and I hated it. For all their talks of being "heroes' of the mist" what they really were were six egomaniacs, high on both mist propaganda and, most of the time, actual drugs. _

_I quickly learnt what "heroes of the mist" meant in Seiya Samina's context_

"No, please, you can't just-!" A man tried to protest as a bolt of lightning slashed through his head while Zabuza's sword cut through his associates like butter.

_Leaf village immigrants and people who opposed the Mizukage. That's who we were taking out. _

_They said it would get better under Yagura. "The reformer" they called him, the man who tamed a tailed beast. He was soft, nothing reformed under him and then bam, he was dead, big surprise. _

Water flushed into the sink, hasty hands picking it up and throwing it into his face. Cheers echoed from outside the small, dimly-lit stall that Zabuza was in.

"…_**Now Officially the Fifth Mizukage, Mei Terumi**_!"

_Didn't buy into Terumi's bullshit reforming either. I could tell, she was soft as well. After Raiga got done in, a new kid joined the team. Mangetsu. Had the same eye's as me, clearly went through the trials. Only difference was they'd started doing it covertly._

_Apparently, she'd "lobbied" for the trials to be removed, but it seems like a load of shit to me. The Fifth Mizukage can't revoke school murder? What a joke. She was big on education as well, real big on education. _

_Made it an easy decision to make. _

_Juzo Biwa was the closest thing I had to a mentor on the swordsmen. Scarred up, tatted-up guy from down south, on the outskirts Kirigakure. Forty years old. A lunatic with no people skills but he taught me a few things. Taught me to respect the sword, taught me how to silently kill, but the most important thing he taught me?_

Fire crackled around the street, uplifting from the houses that strayed to the side. Juzo sat in the middle, surrounded by bodies of the people he and Zabuza had murdered, a non-militant shinobi protest group who had protested Seiya's civil-war on the leaf.

Even a trained killer like Zabuza couldn't help but flinch as he felt the blood seep through a man's shirt, the body of which he was dragging outside to the streets now.

"This is a lot of work, Juzo." He said, tossing the lifeless corpse onto the ever-accumulating pile.

"Fuck it." The older man slurred, clearly drunk, his eyes gazing around the flames. "Shinobi…Zabuza, Shinobi are tools. Tools to send the message **you**want to s-send. All this…bullshit…we're all tools, man…"

_That night, I wrote it off as drunken stupor, some shit Juzo was spouting, whether out of comedy or grief I didn't know. The funny thing is, he was right and through the years I started to realize it, started to see the bigger picture. _

_Those at the top use those at the bottom as cannon-fodder. This is another rule of nature, except this one is the modernized take, this is what humans have pushed the rules to accept and we'll continue to push and prod and pull at the rules, until, they snap, because that's all the people who make the rules know how to do, __**make things snap. **_

Zabuza's footsteps echoed through the school hall's, as he headed towards the nearest classroom in the mist academy. It was funny, normally the sights and smells would send him back to his childhood, but he knew there was no time for reminiscence here.

_**Ding!**_

The clock struck twelve in the morning, meaning it was time for lunch break.

_**Ding!**_

He opened the door to the sixth-grade classroom. Through the window he counted at least twenty ninja's-in-training.

_**Ding!**_

"Woah, is that Zabuza Momoichi?!"

"He's a swordsman of the mist."

"Like, a hero or something."

He heard whispers spread around the class.

_**Ding!**_

_Shinobi are tools to send a message. _

Zabuza reached for the sword on his back.


	7. Sunset Wavelength

"WHAT THE FUCK ARE YOU DOING OUT THERE?!" A small man shouted, spectacles practically flying off his face in anger. Zabuza just slouched further in the chair, barley listening to the man on the other side of the desk.

"It was a simple job. You kill the guy, you come back here, I pay you. What happened was you showed up half-dead, and I'm getting reports from my boys in the wave that one of the guys you were meant to off was walking around the library, all up and go-go. If I'd known you were going to be this fucking incompetent, I'd have shelled out money for those terrorist guys!"

The man yelling was Gato, quasi-ruler of the land of waves

"I wasn't told I'd be fighting an S-Class jonin." Zabuza sneered back, no respect present in his tone.

"Don't get snappy with me Momochi!" Gato yelled, having to stand on his chair to even hope of being taller than the man he was speaking to.

"Oh, I'm sorry _my liege_. Maybe next time the richest man this side of Konoha will be able to suck it up and hire the Akatsuki."

"_**That's it!**_" Gato exclaimed, his rapidly reddening face serving in pale contrast to Zabuza's own pale complexion. "The contracts off, you're not getting a cent of my fucking money…boy's!"

A pastel-white man dressed in a beanie as well as a darker, scarred one emerged into the room, sharpened blades at the ready.

"What is it boss?" The hat-wearing man said, obviously itching for a chance to kill (which came immediately)

"Kill this guy, transport the body down to the mist and collect the bounty on his head. Ten percent will go ta' both of you." Gato said, his tone one that would pair with ordering a drink at a bar, not calling for an execution.

"Alrighty then!" The scared one bellowed, pulling out a katana and raising it upwards in tandem with his friend's twin daggers.

Zabuza did not even turn around to acknowledge them. Instead, he raised a hand upwards, pointing his fingers up in what looked like a peace sign before flipping it horizontal and back around towards the men to his back.

Even later that night, with his head cleared, Gato would find the events that transpired hard to follow. Firstly, light began to intensify in the room, the next thing he knew, the glass window that rested at the head of the room shattered.

He blinked and both of his men were bleeding from their necks, throats slit.

In the back of the room stood a small boy with a rain anbu mask. Gato felt a shiver run down his spine from the youth's mere presence. His fingers were stuck out much like Zabuza's, only the slopes of them had two, now blood tipped, needles sticking out of them.

This was when the fear of death really began to set-in. Gato opened his mouth to scream but with speed far greater than he could even see, let-alone react to, Zabuza stuck the side of his hand in his mouth, gagging him.

_**Bam!**_

The other hand pushed Gato's head down onto the desk, nearly knocking him out and leaving a blood stain on the tables surface. The next thing he felt was cold, sharp metal gently cutting into the side of his neck, as well as his hair being pulled upwards.

"Let me tell you how this is going to go." Zabuza spoke calm and clearly, making sure every word was as recognizable as possible. "You will pay me the money after I kill the bridge builder. The contract will not be ended. The only reason I'm not about to kill you now, is because I want to fight Kakashi again, so are we going to have problems?"

Gato, either through pride or fear, stayed silent.

_**BAM!**_

His face was slammed into the desk again, more blood splattering over onto the wood.

"I said, are we going to have problems?"

"N-no." The man mumbled, through a split lip. At this response, Zabuza dropped the grip on his hair and stowed his blade.

"Good choice. Haku, let's go. We've got some prep to do."

"As you wish Zabuza-sensei."

There was something about being left in a pool of your own blood that had a tendency to completely deflate someone's ego. For someone as self-centered as Gato, it only left him stewing.

* * *

With weak limbs, an aching back and completely shot chakra reserves, Sasuke refused to keep climbing the tree. Small bursts of twilight shone through the forest tops, orange beams of light shining into his eyes.

He wasn't focused on that though. Instead, he watched in curiosity as Naruto repeatedly fell off the tree and got back up. Much like a stage play or concert, something about this performance of determination captivated Sasuke, who watched Naruto fall down, writhe in pain and stand back up over and over and over.

Sasuke had gotten his kunai higher, if only by a few inches, but he didn't care. What he was really focused on was Naruto's unending display of resolve. No longer did the Uchiha boy find it comical when his rival hit the ground, instead, he was somewhat disturbed.

The comedic pratfall's of earlier in the day had become more and more physically intensive as it wore on, evidenced by the small twinge of dried blood that rested on the rear hem of Naruto's tracksuit (the wound stemming from Naruto having slipped out from the tree and banged the back of his neck against the trunk)

_**BAM!**_

Naruto hit the ground again, wincing in pain. After a few seconds, Sasuke thought he may have decided to stay down for good, but this was proven wrong when Naruto rose to his feet yet again, focus locked squarely on the tree.

It was mind boggling. He may not have been making much progress but the fact that he was walking at all considering the damage he'd taken was enough to bewilder Sasuke.

_**BAM!**_

He barely made it two meters up the tree before he fell again. His face became sickened, looking like he was going to get onto his knees and hurl any moment, yet through this, he still stood up once more.

His consciousness was shaky, but his will was not, tittering towards the tree with a disregard for what had happened the last dozen or so times he'd been in this situation. Sasuke bit his tongue in an attempt to hold out on the words he wanted to speak, but he couldn't keep it like that for long. As he watched Naruto's nearly limp body begin to march up the tree again, he simply said:

"Stop."

It was expectedly monotone, but even the smallest sound was more than audible in the quiet backyard. Naruto turned to Sasuke, face a contusion of both surprise and anger.

"You win, just stop…doing that." Sasuke continued, his words giving no comfort to the ache of Naruto's body. Instead, the boy just turned back towards the tree and began to run up it again.

"Shut up!"

_**Bam!**_

He tried to say something afterwards but the bump to the back of his head caused his words to dissolve into incomprehensible mumble. Dirt sunk beneath his hands as he pushed himself off the ground, only for more dust to sputter up as he collapsed under his own weight.

"Stop it moron." Sasuke said, more force behind his tone then before (not that it made any difference to the other shinobi)

"No." His arms wobbled under him as he tried once again to get off the ground. "I'm not all talk…I can do it…"

His limbs turned to jelly, sending him spiraling into the ground. Dirt scattered across his face, the blonde having to muster a half-hearted turn over to avoid swallowing something he shouldn't have, only to immediately exhale sharply upon turning to his back.

His face was not angry or confused or determined, instead it was clearly sad, something Sasuke hadn't seen from him before. A frustrated but worn-out arm slammed into the dirt, only punctuating Naruto's grief.

"_**HOW THE FUCK AM I GONNA BE HOKAGE IF I CAN'T CLIMB A DAMN TREE?!"**_

His voice was fuming but his face was on the verge of tears, his baby blue eyes having to blink constantly in some deep-rooted effort to hold them in. Sasuke stood there watching him for what felt like an hour but in actuality it was little more than a minute.

Suddenly, he crouched down next to Naruto, clutching at the boy's wrist before yanking him to his feet.

"C'mon, you're not gonna be Hokage if you're dead either. Take an hour." He said, looking back towards his surroundings. They'd drifted out from Tazuna's home somewhat, although the building was still pretty nearby as far as he could tell.

The sun's shadow faded downwards giving him a decent idea of the time.

_Climates winter-like. If the suns going down it's between five and six. _

He couldn't shake the feeling of eyes burrowing into the back of his head, pressing more heat into his hair than even the sun could. Turning around, he saw Naruto starring at him, wide-eyed.

"What?"

The Uzumaki feel to his knees, his erratic motion a mix of nausea and something that looked like shame (an expression he noted looked wildly foreign on Naruto's features)

"Sorry I was being an asshole." The words were jagged and rough due to his heavy breathing, but the intention was still clear, clear enough to drag Sasuke out of his own head for a few seconds.

"I'm..." The Uchiha felt his mouth click, the words coming out without any thought put into them "…sorry for being an asshole too."

The words were so soft and empathetic that it was hard to tell it was Sasuke saying them at all. Naruto's hand begun to rustle however, almost as if he was about to throw a punch (which was exactly what happened). His hand flew at Sasuke, harshly molding through the air before suddenly, it stopped, still scrunched up into a fist.

"Are we cool?" He finally asked with eyes conveying uncertainty to Sasuke. The hand had not been a punch, instead it was extended out for a fist pump. His dark eyes observed the gesture, the display of kinship one had had not experienced in a long time.

Wait, when was the last time he had a friend?

_Fwoosh._

His knuckle connected with Naruto's; arm casually pushed outward. Almost immediately, a huge grin broke out on the Uzumaki's face, fitting in perfectly with the sunset skies. He dragged his hand back, letting his arms rest freely to his sides while jutting a finger out.

"Friends, not rivals_._" He chanted happily.

"Friends, not rivals." The significantly more mobile Sasuke chanted back, a slight smile escaping his face. "…We should start heading back, suns going to go down soon."

"Okay…" Naruto conceded, slinging his arm around an awaiting Sasukes shoulder and beginning to take baby steps back to Tazuna's house.

"Well, the suns definitely gonna set before we get back if you keep walking like that."

"You can shut it!" Naruto growled back, increasing his strides far past what he should've been walking in his state.

"Yeah, yeah…" Sasuke replied, smiling as they began to short journey back to the house.

* * *

Naruto rolled against the slightly uncomfortable couch, only receiving ease from the small fire next to him. Occasionally he heard voices from the other rooms but they only served to make him wish he hadn't fucked over his ability to move.

Meiya's hand washed over his head with a damp cloth, cold water soaking into his brow. It did nothing to chill his nerves however, which had been shot ever since Kakashi had told the genin Zabuza was still alive when Naruto and Sasuke returned to the house.

"_Ehhh_." He grimaced at the frosty sensation, eyes slanting with the liquid breeze. The girl took no notice of his discomfort, grabbing an alcohol wipe and running it along Naruto's arm. The smooth wipe stopped abruptly, and she removed it from his arm.

"Looks like a chakra blockage." She said, spectacles dim with the light from the fire.

"What's that?"

"When your natural network loses enough chakra, it tries to replenish it, but the lack of chakra in the system creates a sort of frostbite effect where the body has to generate more chakra to try and unblock the natural network."

Naruto felt his breath grow shaky. "Is there a cure?!"

"If you consider a few hours rest a medical treatment then yeah." She replied, clearly not too concerned about his condition.

"Aw man." He groaned, only to quickly recognize that a few hours without movement was preferable to _**forever **_without movement. The room suddenly filled up with additional presence as Tetsuji stepped into it, guilty smile on his face.

"What happened?" Meiya asked him with a sigh, clearly recognizing the expression.

"Uh, yeah, babe, I kinda' forgot to get something for dinner…or breakfast…or lunch…"

"Oh come on!" He had realized that telling her she may be going the night without eating was a surefire way to piss his wife off.

"Calm down, calm down, I'll head off to the market now."

"They close soon!" Meiya responded, vision beginning to match the scarlet of her hair.

"The nearest market's only, like, ten minutes away." He responded defensively, holding his hands up in the air.

"…Yeah, well you should take the two kids with you, so you can carry more. Also, could you pick up some bandages? My stocks running thin."

"Got ya'" He said, flashing a thumbs up before walking into the other room as his speech began to fade out.

"Hey…you two!" Was the last thing Naruto could make out before Tetsujis voice became completely indiscernible. His attention lulled, eyes straying to the ceiling in an attempt to focus on _**something**_.

"_Idiot._" He heard Meiya whisper, shaking her head. His eyes darted over to her, but he couldn't help but notice that she was smiling while she said it.

Weird.

* * *

When the wave mission had started, Sakura had been in amazement at the empty Konoha streets. Looking through the ones of the land of waves, she assumed most people here would not share that wonder.

It was so silent and run down, you could've guessed no one lived here.

"Woah, careful, urchins to your right." Tetsuji said, motioning to a group of children with long cloths covering their face. Their small, beady eyes stuck out from the cloth, centering on Tetsuji and the others with obvious intent to pick pocket.

"_Písah, písah!_" He shouted at them, causing them to scatter outwards, kicking dust up behind their feet. Their hands flew through the wind as they ran, the circled-triangle tattoos that were inked into them earning an interested gaze from Sasuke.

"What's that symbol mean?" He asked the older man.

"That's the jashin tattoo, it's pretty prevalent around here. Whole lot of them immigrated here after the land of earth got sick of their shit…well, not their shit, but, like…it's a whole complicated thing."

"We've got time." Sakura said, her statement backed up by a nod from Sasuke.

"Well, the main Jashin text, the thysia I think it's called, led the religion into this big dispute." Tetsuji explained, as Sasuke and Sakura began to notice more and more of the small gazes hidden in between the rubbish and architecture of the wave. "The thysia was super big on self-sacrifice but after a while, more people started to doubt the _self_-part of that."

"What do you think about it?" Sasuke asked, hair slightly mucked by the dust that blew through the air.

"I dunno, haven't read it, just ran in circles that did." He said, stopping on a heel to look over the street-ways with a look of reminisce. Just as quickly however, he snapped out of it and began to walk again. "Anyway, the people who continued to follow the original way were dubbed Orthodox Jashinists while the ones who, ya' know, wanted to kill people were called Insurgent Jashinists. One group wanted to kill no one; the other group wanted to kill everyone. Pretty easy to figure out who won."

Tetsuji let out a small bit of laughter at this, which was nervously carried on by Sakura. Sasuke in the meanwhile realized that they were making good progress through the village although the word "good" may be up for a debate with its usage.

The buildings began to decay more and more the further they got to the market. Terrain was flung onto the roads, clearly the work of sloppy building work that had gone array while the citizens that clung to the streets darted around like hungry rats, desperate for even the smallest bit of food or money.

It was an interesting feeling to have your worldview shifted or evolved. It really made you feel small, because the scope of what you were understanding had grown so tremendously. In this case, Sasuke had thought he'd seen the absolute lowest the world could go while wondering around back in Konoha, but this place? The leaf village slums would be considered a luxury to these people.

The horizon-spotted market was what could only be described as the dump of a dump. It had been built on the ruin of what looked like an industrial building or school, small bits of plaster being dug into the ground.

Small storefronts had been set up around area, each one adorned with torn paper decals and chipped wood frames. As they got closer, Sasuke and Sakura saw a majority of the marketplace owners seemed to be Jashinists, at least according to the cloths that they had wrapped around their mouths.

Meanwhile, Tetsuji's didn't even spare a second, immediately making his way over to a booth where a small array of fish and dairy goods were spread out on a wide plastic tray. The man at the counter looked up at him with a gaze that was almost made devilish by the rags under his eyes.

"_Pósa ge 'altoús?" _Tetsuji asked him, shifting his voice to an unfitting Jashin accent. His finger outstretched over some of the bigger cuts of fish that lay over the table.

"_Pénta Ubikon kathéna" _The man replied, voice nasally and deceitful.

"_Cacamilla." _Tetsuji replied, tone distinctly argumentative. Sasuke could tell from this alone that he was trying to bargain, but the Jashin counterman was not having it.

"_chi." _He breathed in response, eyes closing as if to symbolize that the deal was closing too. Tetsuji clearly couldn't handle the tension, and broke out his wallet, retrieving ten blunt, silver coins from the slot.

Sakura's pity level shot through the roof at the sight of the currency.

_**Jeez, even the money looks run down here.**_

The fish were promptly wrapped in cheap paper casing, small bits of juice staining the edges of it. Tetsuji didn't flinch when he touched them, which would have been slightly admirable if he hadn't expected other people not to flinch when they touched them.

"Here, can you hold this?" He said passing the two packages to Sakura.

"Oh, uh, okay." She said, wincing as the paper made a noticeable "squelch" sound under her grasp.

"I'm gonna' go get some more stuff, just stay put. If any pickpockets come up to you, just shoo them, alright?"

Sasuke and Sakura both let out mumbled sounds of acknowledgment, which was all Tetsuji needed to hear before he began to walk away. Sakura's eyes greyed over, the wet texture of the paper crinkling under her fingers…also they stunk, they really, really stunk.

Sasuke's gaze met hers, obvious sympathy lying within it.

"I'll hold one."

Sakura let out a breath she'd been holding in, too-eager to hand one of the fish over. Sasuke took it without a fuss, despite his touch visibly shivering under the slimy surface. His actual gripe, however, was the other fishes' head, which he looked at with clear jitters.

"The face is really off-putting." He said, even the smallest bit of conversation from him completely surprising Sakura enough that she retreated to her own head for a few seconds, only snapping out when she saw his shoot her an odd look.

"Yeah…" She responded, limited vernacular not going unnoticed by herself.

_**Oh, come on! Say something, anything! Don't just leave him hanging.**_

"What would you do if the eye moved and looked at you?"

That was it. That was what she said.

**...**

Sakura fully prepared herself for a gaze of annoyance, disgust or something in-between from Sasuke. Instead, a foreign sound invaded her ears, so unfamiliar that it took her a few seconds to realize what it was.

"_Pfft_, _haha_." Sasuke laughed. It was small, faint even, but it was a laugh, and one with no malice behind it. "I mean, even if it was still alive it wouldn't make much difference once it goes into the oven, right?"

Now it was Sakura's turn to laugh, a slight giggle breaking out through the nearly deserted patch of land.

"Yeah, I guess. 'Would be kinda creepy seeing him flail around on the tray though."

"But if he can survive that long without water, how can you be sure the ovens going to be able to kill him?"

"Oh, that's a good point." She reasoned with a laugh, almost weirded-out by the fact that Sasuke was smiling, however slight that smile may be. She was so used to him looking either sad or irritated that for him to seem even content in his environment was a major shocker.

"Hey, hey!" She didn't have time to dwell on it though (or continue the conversation) as Tetsuji emerged, ripping their focuses away from each other and onto him. He immediately placed a few dozen cartoons of assorted food into each of their arms while strapping a large amount of them on his own back. "It's time to head back, you don't want to be hanging around here for too long after six."

Sasuke said nothing, while Sakura was about to agree until a stall located way at the back of the plantation caught her eye. A thin non-Jashin lady sat in the chair, various kunai and weapons by her side. The kunoichi felt her eyes twinkle as she turned back to Tetsuji.

"Hey…wait up for a second."

* * *

Naruto groaned as he sat up onto the couch. Movement was slowly becoming a reasonable request of him, at least in his main sources of flexibility. He gently rested against the gristly fabric, kicking his feet upwards at an attempt to restore mobility in them.

The warmth of the fireplace didn't help, as its flames radiance served to nearly numb him to sleep. He ven felt his eyelids slowly starting to shut before the sound of lumbering footsteps shot them wide open.

"Ay' kid, mind if I…" Tazuna's voice slurred into the room, demanding Naruto's attention. "Ah, it's my fucking house, why the hell am I asking you?!" The old man slumped into the chair next to Naruto, gripping the arm rests with unwarranted ferocity. His breath stunk of alcohol and his flask was undone. Clearly, he'd had a drink or ten.

There was a complete setting of silence in the house, most of the light coming from the meek but warm fire place, until Naruto finally said:

"Not making much progress on the bridge, hey?"

"Yeah, don't wanna die, s' all. Especially now I'd have to deal with a _**pissed off **_Zabuza Momochi instead of one that's just…" He drunkenly paused, left eye twitching before leaning back and finishing his sentence. "…in it for business."

"Hey, you'll be covered by Kakashi-Sensei and me and Sasuke and Sakura, so there's not much to worry about."

Tazuna snorted (maybe too hard), eyes jutting shut from the recoil. He placed a clearly aching head onto his palm before turning to Naruto with strangely sober eyes.

"Wadda' you want to do when you grow up kid? Like, after you finish all this ninja shit, whad'a'ya want to do?" He asked, provoking an instantaneous response from the boy to his side.

"I want to become the Hokage, a hero of the leaf!" Presumably on instinct, Naruto thrust his fist out heroically, the effects of it being well and truly lost on an unimpressed Tazuna.

"Heroes? Really? Kid, heroes don't exist here, hell, heroes don't exist anywhere. I've heard this hero shit before, trust me, if you value being alive, it's better to be a cog in the system." His gaze was angered, yet cast downwards, like he didn't really want to face anything.

Naruto had been taken off-guard, not so much in self-confidence but from Tazuna's callous tone. The anger seemed to be completely undeserved, yet also unreserved. Usually, when people got mad like this, it had something to do with fear or death.

"…Was your son a hero?" Naruto finally asked, socially clueless enough to think this was a good time to bring the subject up. Tazuna turned to him, anger setting ablaze to more anger.

"How the hell do you know about that?!"

"I saw the picture in the attic."

"The fuck said you could go snooping up there?!"

"You did!" Naruto yelled back, beginning to reciprocate Tazuna's fury with a shaking fist to boot. The older man just paused, seemingly retracing the entire last day before his face fell and he admitted defeat.

"Yeah, yeah, I know." He grumbled, accepting defeat. A large sigh was emitted afterwards, spreading his drunken breath further across the room.

"So, what happened to him?" Naruto asked, language beginning to soften around the delicate subject.

"Ah…it was back after Gato had taken over and his corruption was made obvious. Muji joined a protest group…I told him it was a bad idea, but he wouldn't listen. The group started to get big, _real big_." He'd only just started talking but it felt more like a ramble. Naruto may as well have not been in the room. "They would clog up the streets chanting "_free the wave! Free the wave_!", all of em' wearing these masks…"

Tazuna suddenly stopped. He didn't get choked up, he just…stopped, looking into the short, fire-place lined distance instead of continuing the story. Naruto counted down seconds in his head waiting for some sort of response from the man. When he received none, he decided to simply provoke the rest of it out.

"And then what happened?"

"What do you think happened, Gato went out there and gave them some fuckin' flower crowns?!" He barked, snapping from solemn to furious in the blink of an eye. "He brought his men and cut 'em down, _every single one of them!_"

Naruto flinched as the bridge builders voice noticeably cracked, emotion in his speech shifting the situation to a very uncomfortable place. Fire and coals crackled at back as the wide-eyed Uzumaki began to watch the man break down in short, concise sobs.

They weren't loud, they were solemn and full of grief, in a way Naruto hadn't heard before. When he cried, it was loud, like he wanted the whole world to hear him and what it made him do. Tazuna's weren't, they were small echoes of a past desperately longed for.

A few minutes flew by, before they started to compress and fade out, leaving a silent Tazuna clutching his head to his knees. He gently turned towards Naruto, almost looking right through the shaky shinobi.

"Don't try and be a hero, the only place you'll end up is on the edge of a sword."

Tazuna would drunkenly get up and go to bed a few minutes later, but his presence had long since stopped being one of Naruto's priorities. Instead, the words echoed over and over in his head.

_Don't try and be a hero. _

_**End up on the edge of a sword**_

_What happened to your __**son**__?_

_**Don't try and be a hero.**_

Naruto finally gritted his teeth and clenched his fist.

"I'll show you…"

He wasn't talking about Tazuna.

* * *

"Dinners ready."

It was around an hour and a half later in the same room, that Kakashi appeared in front of his students, holding four bowls of steaming fish stew.

"Alright!" Naruto exclaimed, having not eaten anything since he started the tree training earlier in the day. As expected, he almost immediately started gulping it down, treating the stew more like some sort of drink as he tipped the bowl over his mouth. The other two were more cautious.

"Who made it?" Sakura asked, looking at the swirling orange mixture with slight concern.

"Tetsuji." Kakashi answered back, running a piece of silverware through his own.

"Oh." The kunoichi replied with that concern proving to be warranted.

"Try it, it's pretty good." Kakashi said, before peeling his mask outwards somewhat so he could drop a small fillet of fish into his mouth. Heading his advice, Sakura spooned up a chunk of the fish, topped with scallions and ate it.

Her eyes widened.

"_Mmm_. That's really good." She said, pleased yet confused that Tetsuji was actually a more than decent cook. Sasuke, in the meanwhile, took no notice of this fact, instead looking over at Kakashi through his raised bowl.

Naruto quickly noticed this, gently placing his own bowl down as he continued on the conga of eyesight that started with him and ended with Kakashi.

Gently shuffling his hands around, he shrugged them at Sasuke, as if too ask "what are you doing?"

Sasuke responded by tracing a line just above his lips, then pulling it outwards with one set of clenched fingers and miming dropping food into his mouth. He then crossed both his hands, showing that this was not feasible.

He pointed to Kakashi before draping the side of his hand above his lips and pulling it downward. Naruto's face lit up, before transitioning to a devilish smile as he realized they'd have to see Kakashi's real face if the older man wanted to eat!

_**Clink!**_

A bowl was set down on the table, accompanied by a loud sigh of satisfaction

"Aah, that was a good meal." Kakashi said. The bowl was completely empty.

Naruto and Sasuke both felt their eyes and spirits sink at the collective blueball they'd just been the victims of with Kakashi (pretending) to take no notice. Instead he turned his attention fully to the three of them, eye lazily stagnant through the gap in his mask.

"So…what's our gameplan now?" Kakashi asked them, the question bringing forth a look of shock onto the genin's faces.

"You're the jonin, why don't you tell us?" Sasuke replied, confused as to why Kakashi would bother asking them the question.

"Well, we're at something of a cross roads now, aren't we? We successfully escorted Tazuna back to the wave and technically completed the job, yet, I feel that may not be enough for some of you."

_Some of you _was a roundabout way of saying Naruto, who in-turn quickly crossed his arms.

"The old man's not gonna' build the bridge. Not with the guy in the tape still alive at least."

This information was clearly not news to Kakashi, as the older man leaned back and shut his exposed eye, losing himself in thought for just a second before snapping back to attention.

"That leaves us with two options." He held a rest hand up with his middle two fingers extended. "With one, we depart tomorrow, and leave the mist in the state it's in. With the other, we stay and help Tazuna build the bridge, though we will certainly be in contact with Zabuza and his assistant. I have complete faith in you to make the right decision."

He'd barley finished talking before Naruto thrusted his hand outwards. "I vote stay."

"Noted." Kakashi said, eyeline turning to Sakura.

The girl hesitated, as her inner-thoughts began to become more and more prominent in her mind.

_**Second chance now Sakura, you can do it, just say "I wanna go ho- "**_

"I wanna' stay and help." She blurted.

_**Jesus, you suck. **_

Kakashi moved his gaze to Sasuke, which may have been somewhat redundant considering the Uchiha had already been outvoted. His response would only serve as a morale tester. All three expected a long silence to follow, but Sasuke simply leaned back against his seat.

"…I want to stay."

Kakashi's eye glimmered with surprise. That answer was unexpected.

The silence the rest of them had been expecting commenced, until it was mindfully broken up as the jonin spied the clock on the wall.

"You three should probably be going to bed now, we've got a big day tomorrow." He said, looking over the time. The trio of ninja mumbled something which formed into an audible mixture, before they pushed out from their chairs and began to walk upstairs (with Sakura taking a few minutes to finish her stew).

The bedroom was small and cramped, barley two meters in both length and width. A nicely blanketed bed sat in the corner, while two bed-rolls lay to its side. It was Sakuras turn to sleep in the bed, leaving Naruto and Sasuke with the two floor-bound mattresses.

They had formulated a plan early on in their stay, each of them would individually use the upstairs bathroom to change into sleepwear. Despite an attempt to reserve judgments on the others clothing choices however, Sakura and Sasuke couldn't help staring as Naruto emerged into the room.

"Uh, where'd you get that?" Sakura asked, her teal eyes fixated on the slumped sleeping hat that sat on the beaming boys head.

"I've always had it! Just forgot that I packed it is all'." He replied, obviously very happy that he managed to find the hat. His smile soon turned to a look of contemplation as Sasuke asked the million-dollar question.

"…What's it supposed to be?"

Naruto's face locked up, like someone had just told him he had ten minutes to live. He nervously picked up the hat and held it up to his own face. It had…angry looking eyes and a protruding wool nose composed with a black material that made up its majority.

"…Like a dog, or s-something." Sasuke almost felt bad, as his harmless question had seemingly shattered Naruto's whole reality like a glass window. "…Whatever it is, my head's gonna be super warm and yours' are gonna be super cold!"

Sasuke proceeded to kick himself for forgetting how easily Naruto could reconstruct said reality, the boy slipping under the thin covers of his bed roll. The lull in sound brought the three's attention to the banging on the bedroom window.

Sharp, heavy rain-drops rammed against the glass, hard enough that for a brief second, Sasuke was convinced it might actually break it.

"They have bad weather down here don't they?" Sakura said, feeling a chill brush through her even despite the padding of the walls.

"Yeah, it's much nicer in Konoha! Way warmer, more sun and it's not wet all the time." Naruto responded, shivering at the memory of wet dirt squelching under his jacket when he fell down from the tree. "Would you rather get dropped into a pit of lava or a pit of freezing water?"

Sasuke turned to him, uninterested. "Wouldn't they be functionally identical, since your bodies gonna go numb before you really feel anything significant?"

"…Is that true?"

"Yeah, he's right, both of those are too intense for your body to handle." Sakura agreed, before pressing an index finger to her lips. "Although, I think the water would be better, since, ya' know, you wouldn't get totally burned."

Naruto lit up at an answer. "Yeah, that's right!"

Sasuke nodded his head in agreement. "Agree. The ice would probably wouldn't damage your internals as bad. Also, you could just drown yourself and you wouldn't have to feel your brain melting."

_**Crack, crack.**_

A knock at the bedroom door silenced all three of them, as it was promptly opened, Kakashi poking his head out through the slant in the entrance.

"You three, light's out." He said, obviously having heard at least the echoes of their conversation from downstairs. Naruto, however, did not miss a beat when it came to the important questions.

"Kakashi-sensei, would you rather get dropped into a pit of lava or a pit of freezing water?"

Kakashi paused, exposed iris floating upwards as he thought. Five seconds passed, before he reconstructed his gaze at the genin.

"Water." He said before closing the door, wood sinking into the entryway with a slight crack.

"See, we knew it." He said, as Sakura reached upward a tugged on the lamp string.

_**Click!**_

The room went completely dark, as the sound of bodies shifting into comfortable sleeping positions was heard.

"Good night!" Naruto said (a little too loudly considering what he was actually saying)

"Good night." Sakura replied.

"Night." Sasuke concluded the domino effect, shuffling sideways onto his pillow. His smile was intentionally hidden, as he smushed it into the cushions. It felt…nice to be able to smile again.

Unfortunately, the small rush of dopamine that this gave him made him forget that he _hated sleeping_, a fact that he didn't realize until he felt his consciousness begin to slip away. Any attempt to try and grab onto it was void, and he very quickly descended into a deep sleep he desperately wanted no part of.

* * *

_**Blink.**_

The room was dark. Sasuke found his senses were hazy. He was 8 years old, turning nine in a few months.

_**Blink.**_

There was a sound…a lot of sounds. As he pushed himself up from the bed and shakily rubbed his eyes, the sounds became clearer.

_**Blink.**_

They were screams. Screams of help. Screams of fear. Screams of pain.

There was a lot of screaming across the Uchiha compound.

He rolled over to his side, hoping someone had just tripped over and smashed something, and that it would stop.

It didn't.

Slowly, with shaky legs, he stood up. The bed-roll next to his was empty.

He gripped the shoji and pushed it to the side, stepping out into the hallway. The light reflected red into his dark black eyes. Strewn across the floor were the bodies of the Uchiha.

Sasuke began to involuntarily emit sharp, fast breaths. He didn't want this to be true…but it was right in front of his face. His uncle, his cousins, even some of his friends, all lay along the ground. Death had been made obvious, visible slits on their throats of the weaker clan members, while the ones that had been able to fight back had been butchered like chickens.

"_STOP! STOP IT __**PLEASE**__!" _The sound of a man crying for his life echoed through the compound, somewhat snapping Sasuke out of his horror. At least a little bit of his training kicked in and he silently grabbed a kunai that had been hung on the wall.

He attempted to look up at the ceiling while he walked, tears streaming down his face no matter how hard he stayed silent. The cries of horror became more audible the closer he walked, Sasuke continuing to look upwards and mentally block out any time he felt his foot brush something.

He just didn't want to look.

His vow of blindness was kept consistent until he heard the screams echo became redundant. The killer must have been just around the corner. He lowered his head, limbs shaking so hard they may as well have been numb at this point. His cries were still occasionally escaping him, but they stopped when he realized where he was.

His parent's bedroom was at his side.

His brain told him not too, to focus on it later, but his hand had already grasped the doorknob. Gently, he opened it, careful as to not alert the murderer to his presence. He didn't see much, a wall obscured most of it.

He did see his mother's foot folded on the ground lifelessly. The rest of her body was concealed but that alone was enough for the hatred to overtake him.

"_**BASTARD!**_" He slammed the door, tears flowing from his eyes while his previously soft steps turned into a full-on sprint. He rounded the corner, holding the kunai close to him.

Then his steps slowed.

His eyes broadened.

The tears didn't stop.

At the end of the long, bloodied hallway, was his brother, clutching a freshly-killed body by the collar. The older boy cocked his head towards Sasuke, the crimson of the sharingan saying more than words ever could. His specialized aluminum blade was stained with blood. Sasuke fleetingly remembered the three-week trip he'd taken to get it, but that wasn't important now, knowing why he did this was.

"I-Itachi?" Sasuke whimpered, his temporary rage faltering under the ruby-red locked gaze.

"Go back to bed Sasuke." Itachi's uttered with monotone before he turned away and began to stroll through the compound, as if nothing had happened.

Sasuke stood there, hands shaking around the kunai. It took a few seconds before Itachis gradually fading footsteps snapped him back to earth.

"Itachi…come back." He said, somehow expecting a response from his brother, who had not even given him the smallest speck of attention. "Itachi…**come back!**"

Sasuke gritted his teeth and began to run towards Itachi, kunai extended outwards with clear killer intent. For a second, he thought he'd managed to get the jump on him, as Itachi seemingly refused to turn around and face him.

This was quickly revealed to be an absurd pipedream, as before Sasuke could even take another step, Itachi turned around, sharingan glimmering read.

Sasuke felt his heart stop.

Genjutsu took a hold of him, a complete body paralysis causing him to slam into the ground. It was a basic illusory technique (although made incredibly effective by Itachi's extended capabilities in the art). Sasuke would debate himself for years afterwards whether Itachi had simply underestimated him or that his positioning had been some sick calculation, but they were functionally indistinguishable.

"**Itachi**…" Sasuke murmured, tears dripping down to the hardwood floor. He desperately tried to stand but his limbs wouldn't budge. "_**ITACHI**_!"

He began to scream, despite knowing that his brother would never return.

His face had been angled to face the slew of bodies that adorned the floors.

He couldn't move.

"_**ITACHI, PLEASE COME BACK! PLEASE!**_" As he was forced to face the corpses of his clan, tears began to puddle down his cheeks in greater force than before, running down his face.

After what felt like hours of screaming, he soon realized the only thing he could do was close his eyes and pretend the bodies weren't there. _Just pretend they weren't there…_

* * *

"_**AAh!**_"

Sasuke shot up from his bed-roll, running his hands down to his legs to try and grab a weapon. His eyes darted to the side, looking for the sight of a dead body, only to find Naruto drooling into his pillow.

He realized where he was.

That night felt like a bad-dream a lot of the time and Sasuke usually wished it was. Unfortunately for him, this dream was essentially on rerun every time he went to sleep. He glanced over the specks of light in the window. It was early in the morning, around 3 o'clock.

Slowly, he pushed himself to his feet and began to walk out of the room. He trailed downstairs, recreating the path where the bathroom was. When he found it, he practically threw the door open, rushing over to the sink and splashing water over his face.

Since the massacre, he'd found water reassuring. While his tears had been hot, water was cold. It reminded him he wasn't there anymore. He almost immediately rebounded back upstairs, slipping into his sleeping bag. What he didn't expect however, was a shrill whisper from his side.

"Sasuke, are you still awake?" Naruto asked him, voice sounding strange when he was forcing himself to be quiet.

"Nope, I'm asleep."

Naruto turned onto his back with widened eyes. "Woah, I'm dreaming?"

"I'm awake moron."

"Oh, okay!" Naruto flipped back to his side with no reaction to the insult.

"Why are you up?" Sasuke asked, a slight bit confused what Naruto was doing awake at what must've been no later than three in the morning.

"I had the weird dream again…with the guy with the big red eyes." Naruto said, purposely muddling the true nature of the "guy" with the big eyes. Sasuke turned to him confused.

"The guy with the big red eyes?"

"Yeah."

"…is this a recurring thing?"

"For as long as I can remember yeah…hey why are so interested in the guy with the big red eyes?" Naruto switched to defensive in the blink of an eye.

"Because, what if it's a genjutsu…actually, scratch that, I don't know who's gonna put that genjutsu on you."

"The classic guy with big red eyes genjutsu." Naruto joked, laughing to himself, before recovering. "Nah, it's like having an imaginary friend. He talks and stuff."

Sasuke was curious, but something told him he already knew who the guy was. Despite this, he asked the question. "What does he say?"

"He just kinda' laughs. He says other stuff, but I don't really listen to him. He's kind of an asshole."

That got a laugh out of Sasuke, who rolled onto his back. Silence returned to the room, until Naruto decided he needed to break it.

"Sasuke, if all the Hokages got into a fight, like, in their fighting primes, who do you think would win?"

"…That's kind of interesting, because the first- "The Uchiha started, not expecting an actual thought-provoking question from Naruto

They stayed there, the two of them, just talking for a while, at least until Sasuke passed out again. Sasuke felt like he had more conversation in that half an hour with Naruto then he did with anyone else for the last five years of his life.

Eventually though, he passed out from fatigue, leaving only Naruto awake which was a fact the boy would quickly try to rectify. He tossed and he turned and he tried to go to sleep, having gotten a bit too used to talking to Sasuke (and he didn't want to be a dick and wake him up)

Hours past, every waking minute increasing Naruto's boredom. Ultimately, he resolved to watch the window, as the first drips of the five o' clock sun began to pour in, which is when he saw it.

The big tree across the forest, that loomed over the horizon line. He'd promised himself he was going to climb it.

Surely no one would mind if he left for a few minutes?

Draping the forehead protector over his brow, Naruto stood up, silently walking out of the room.

He was going to climb it.

He was going to show him.

* * *

_A feminine boy sat on the cold streetways. His hands were red with frostbite, and his kimono had been placed in front of him, spare change thrown into it by occasional strangers who mistook him for a beggar. _

"_Matches for sale." He would mumble to the civilians who passed him by. He'd gotten used to hearing their footsteps fade out._

_When a pair of feet stopped however, that was when it surprised him._

_His brown eyes wandered up the stopping persons figure. The man had bandages around his mouth, and a large sword on his back. _

_The boy's eyes stayed blank. _

"_Matches for sale." _


	8. Weaving Mist, Striking Thunder

Naruto let out small breaths of air as he ran through the forest. That big tree had been way further away then he thought, plus he had also _severely _underestimated how cold it was. He was glad he was wearing his tracksuit; it was the only thing that was keeping him at all insulated.

Clammy hands gripped at his collar, attempting to press it down so the cold air couldn't slip into his neck. Thin, yet heavy mist seeped through the surroundings, it's chilling tone uprooting butterflies in Naruto's stomach.

"_Uh…can anyone hear me?!_" He shouted out, teeth chattering with freezing panic. The cold began to climb up his legs…literally, ice shot upwards over his orange pants, coating the bright fabric in a gradient of white and blue.

"_**A-ah!"**_ He shouted in surprise. An attempt to fall backwards in fright was halted by the block of ice, which began to reach his back. All color faded from the world, painting Naruto's view of himself monochrome.

The scenery faded to complete blackness.

_**Tap.**_

Footsteps radiated from in front of Naruto. His eyes attention fixated on a figure in the bleak horizons.

_**Tap.**_

The ice encased his arms, he was completley unable to move. Any attempt to call out for help was rendered null, voice completely absent in this dream-like world.

_**Tap.**_

The figure got closer to Naruto. It looked like…a girl, but she was wearing…boy's clothes? Whatever, he had _slightly _more pressing matters at the moment considering the lethal nature that clouded the person's blank features.

_**Tap. **_

Closer and closer they got to a struggling, muted Naruto. Brown eyes met blue as they halted in front of him. Even if Naruto could talk, he wouldn't have, body paralyzed by ice and fear under the person's judging gaze.

After seconds of what appeared to be contemplation, they stuck their arm out towards the ice-encased Naruto. The boy braced himself for an oncoming attack, closing his eyes to try and block out what was coming.

_**Splash!**_

The feeling of puddle water splashing up under the dirt awoke him with a shiver.

"Huh?" He thought out loud, the overgrowing ice neither visible or sensed. The outstretched arm of the youth above him was not aggressive and instead only intended to retrieve the clothes that hung on a nearby washing line.

Naruto froze, not literally, but just from the snap-out-of-dream-like state he'd been put in.

"It's rare to see people in the woods." The androgynous person said in a blank tone, bringing Naruto back to earth. "What brings you out here"

"…I was tryin' climb the big tree over there and- "Naruto locked up; train of thought derailed when he looked over the persona again. Boy or girl. _Boy or girl. Boy…or…girl?_

A more subtle person would've attempted to weasel the answer out through conversation topics, but Naruto was a straight shooter.

"…Are you a guy or a girl?"

He was answered with a small laugh, before the boy/girl turned to him, sly smile plastered on his/her lips.

"Guy." He replied, throwing the clothes into a large, empty basin. Naruto wanted to question this, but was soon sidelined as the (now-apparent) boy turned to him with a question.

"What's your name?"

Naruto felt his heart beat quicken. If that Gato guy was in charge of the wave, this person could easily be a spy. No way he was just going to give up his name.

"…Uaruto Nzumaki." He said, the lie obvious because no one in the entire world had that name, and if they did, it had been legally changed.

"You're from the leaf?" The boy asked, with "Uaruto" almost saying no before he realized he was wearing the forehead protector of the _hidden leaf village._

"Yeah."

"Interesting, I've always wanted to visit…never got the chance."

This confused Naruto and it showed in his eyes. "Ya' know it's only a few hours walking from here right?"

The other boy smiled softly. "I'm too busy to make a trip right now, especially with me and sensei's work."

"Ah, that sucks." Naruto mused, only for his face to light up in a lit-lightbulb style fashion. "Hey, when I'm hokage, maybe I can bring you guy's in for a visit."

"What makes you so sure you'll become the Hokage?" The other boy replied, voice accented in a way that made the word sound odd.

"...I dunno." Naruto's response conveyed a lack of maturity, but one that his companion found strangely endearing.

"Well, let me change the question, _why _do you want to be the hokage?"

The blonde's brow didn't furrow, instead his answer was instantaneous.

"So all the people in the village stop ignoring me and start treating me like I'm somebody, datteabyo!"

The other boy did not seem particularly impressed with this, a reaction that was not lost upon Naruto.

"Hey! What's your dream then?!" Naruto yelled in response to nothing but the boy's facial expression.

"Well, I grew up an orphan..." The boy replied, slinging the basin of clothes over his back while his eyes twinkled with fear and reminisce. "My parents were killed in the mist riots."

_Matches for sale, matches for sale._

"My sensei took me in after he passed me on the street. Until he came along, I had nearly frozen to death more times than I can count, but he…he taught me how to embrace the cold." His vision glazed over, ignoring Naruto's presence. "To lack a purpose in this world…it's a truly awful feeling. My dream is to protect the people precious to me, the ones who kept me from feeling that."

Silence hung, with the weight of the boy's words blending in with the thick mist.

"…Why'd ya tell me all that stuff?" Naruto asked, not out of boredom, but simply out of confusion. This was the second time in the last two days he'd had someone pore that heart out to him.

"My sensei say's eyes are the windows to the souls. Yours are kind, it seemed like you'd understand." The youth replied, smiling calmly before turning around and beginning to walk away. "See you later "Uaruto Nzumaki""

The interaction had lasted less than five minutes, but Naruto found himself sad to see the boy depart. Further and further into the mist he disappeared, eventually leaving Naruto's line of sight.

While the direct connection between them may have been fleeting, Naruto would embark on the dimly lit path back to Tazuna's house a few minutes later.

The big tree was not climbed.

* * *

Sakura awoke decently early in the morning, hair sagging around her features. The sun was at least partially out, so she figured it was no use going back to bed. Carefully, she tip-toed through the bedroom, wary of waking Sasuke lest he freak out again.

Her footsteps were audible as she walked down the cramped staircase, drowsy enough to rest one hand on the rail that supported it. The sound of sizzling filled her ears, as she drew closer to the main room, along with the smells of breakfast.

As she entered the room, she saw Tetsuji working over the stove-top.

"Hey, up a bit early aren't ya'?" He acknowledged her presence as he cracked an egg into the frying pan, its contents dripping out around a few, admittedly famished-looking strips of bacon.

"Not as early as you." She mumbled back, draping herself over the table.

"Fair point."

The houses kitchen wasn't even a real kitchen, instead it was a sectioned-off quadrant of the living room, with a counter placed down to separate it.

"…You guys have this much in Konoha?" Tetsuji suddenly asked, taking the pan off the heat and turning his full attention towards Sakura. At first, she didn't respond, silence telling Tetsuji he needed to elaborate. "Like, bacon and eggs and stuff?"

"Not really, we usually have eggs and rice in the morning." Sakura replied, eyes slanted as she tried to fully wake up.

"Ah, right, right. This is probably more from around here, since we've got so much farmland."

Sakura felt her mouth click with curiosity. "How do you know so much about…culture? Did you learn it in school?" The question had slight ulterior motives in regards to her inner thoughts.

_**I fucking hope not, if this guy gets better world-affairs education than us, our Academy may as well be useless **_

"Nah, I didn't really have a school I could go to after Gato took over. I learnt most of it on the streets."

"So you were in a gang?" Sakura attempted to pry some information out of Tetsuji (although the question begged asking, how much information could you "pry" from an already open book?)

"Well, yeah, but everyone was in a gang when they were younger. You weren't surviving the streets if you weren't." Tetsuji grasped the pan, while also collecting two plates and setting them down on the table, ratioing half the breakfast to himself and half to Sakura.

"Thanks." She murmured, as she hungrily dug into the meal. The egg was nice while the bacon was not in the best shape, Tetsuji having obviously seasoned it to hell in an attempt to compensate for the taste. "…did you have a gang name?"

Tetsuji displayed slight comedy as he sat down, funneling a bit of the egg into his mouth before answering. "Yeah, we were the Wave-Street Sidewalkers."

Sakura's eyes and mouth tilted with amusement. "Wow, you really lost the lottery with that one."

"We were late in the gang game so all the other cool words that started with W and S were taken " This was clearly something Tetsuji had been holding in for years judging by his enthusiasm, but he quickly calmed back down. "Could've been worse though, we almost ended up being the Wave Village Vikings, which doesn't even make sense."

Sakura laughed at that one, tearing a chunk of bacon off one of the pieces. "Is that because of Great Viking Senshi?"

"Yep."

Great Viking Senshi was a popular manga series for children, detailing a fictional society of warriors known as "Vikings". Sakura didn't read manga much, but she'd skimmed through that one because of its rampant popularity. It was bad, _really bad_.

Sakura groaned and lay back against the backrest of her chair.

"…You reckon you'll try and go to the bridge today?" Tetsuji asked her, having already cleared his plate.

"Probably." Sakura asked, monotone voice trying to not indicate that she was deadly scared of going to the bridge.

"I'm not sure you'll get Tazuna up, last night was one of his worst binges in a while." He replied, obviously having kept track of the time his father-in-law had gone on a drinking spree.

"Well, we'll see. I think Kakashi will be able to do it." Sakura said with a smile.

* * *

"Tazuna, wake up." Kakashi sternly said, crouched on the other half of Tazuna's bed. The meeting had commenced around two hours after Sakura's prediction, and the jury was out on whether that prediction would be correct.

"Don't 'anna, do it 'mrw." He slurred, not even facing the masked man.

"It'd be best to do it today."

"Nope."

"Yes."

"Nope."

"Do it today or we're leaving, and you can deal with Zabuza knocking on your door later tonight with no one there to protect you."

"…doesn't 'know where I live." Tazuna stammered back, much to Kakashi's frustration.

"Reckon he'll be able to find you."

This benign statement set something off in Tazuna, who pushed himself out of the bed with clear inflamed anger in his eyes.

"Nobody's gonna' come work on the bridge anymore, not after Gato's suppression tactics. So, I'd love to go out there and save my country, but, _**unfortunately, **_I've got no one to build the fucking thing!"

Kakashi's venomous vision wilted slightly under an actual valid point, but it quickly recharged itself.

"I acknowledge that, but every minute spent here is a minute my genin are at risk. I've stuck it out because It's reasonable to assume Zabuza is more focused on killing me than you and a confrontation is inevitable, but I'm at the end of my rope. I know what it's like to be a kid stuck in a warzone and I'm not going to perpetually put those three through it."

The response was sobering, both in delivery and in that it literally caused Tazuna to sober, albeit only slightly. Swallowing his pride (as well as spit), he began to grab clothes from the dressing rack.

"We'll leave in an hour."

"Thank you." Kakashi replied, soft in tone.

As Tazuna changed, he walked downstairs, although upon hearing the sound of Naruto screaming, he wished he hadn't.

"_**I DO NOT HAVE BLADDER PROBLEMS!"**_

"Well then you're a liar, because you were gone when Sakura woke up and only came back when I was awake, so you either have some sort of bladder disorder or you weren't "just taking a piss"" Sasuke shot back at him with razor-tipped accuracy.

"I laid it out for you, dumbass. Twenty minutes of practice, ten minutes to find my way back, eight minutes to take a piss."

"You did not take eight minutes to piss, you're a book of lies."

"I hadn't done one since yesterday morning!"

"_WELL THEN YOU HAVE BLADDER PROBLEMS BECAUSE NO ONE HOLDS IT IN THAT LONG WITHOUT PISSING THEMSELVES!" _Sasuke yelled, clearly frustrated by his battle with the immovable object of "Naruto Uzumaki in a debate."

"What's this about?" Kakashi asked them, his sudden intrusion not fazing either boy as their attention snapped to him.

"Kakashi, what does it mean if it takes you eight minutes to urinate?" Sasuke asked, one-hundred percent serious and invested in the discussion.

"It means you have a problem." He replied, answer causing a split reaction between the three students. Naruto began to huff and puff, Sasuke leaned back in affirmation while Sakura desperately tried to stop herself from laughing in the background.

The jonin quickly shifted his attention from piss-related discussions to the two actual adults in the room. Meiya was rummaging through a medicine cabinet, mentally checking off what she needed.

"Hey, 'suji, can you go scavenging for some echinacea later? Mai's kids got a cold, I need some for a remedy…wait, have Gato's guys caught you picking stuff recently?"

"Not in a while."

"Cool. Remember, if they see you, you say…" She motioned her finger upwards, waiting for a response.

"I was just looking for some cilantro." He said, which reassured her slightly before she turned her focus to Kakashi.

"Hey, are you and dad going to the bridge today?"

"That's what he says." Kakashi said back.

Meiya's face fell for a split-second before a look of neutrality was reconstructed. "Well, it'll be good for that lazy asshole to get back to work finally." Her tone was snappy and joking, but Kakashi recognized it all too well as an overcompensation tactic.

He chose to let it go.

"We're leaving in an hour." Kakashi said, both to Meiya and to Team Seven (whom he'd turned around to face.) He strode past his team not expecting further questioning, only to receive one from Sakura.

"Sensei, how are we going to beat this guy?" She asked, concern obvious in all three of the genins faces. It was a good question, one that Kakashi mentally slapped himself for not already bringing it up to them. He stood in the doorway, motionless for a minute, before finally answering.

"Zabuza uses his own momentum as a weapon. It doesn't matter if he loses the sword or even a limb, as long as he has a way of generating motion, he's incredibly dangerous." Kakashi brought a hand to his chin, resting fingers against his masks thin fabrics as he thought. "As for the apprentice, the only thing we know about them is that they use needles, so try and dodge around them. I know it's not the best advice, but it's all we've got at this point in time. Got all that?"

All three genin nodded their heads in recognition, prompting Kakashi to turn backwards towards his room and continue walking away.

"See you in an hour."

* * *

Time was painfully slow for almost everyone in the house. Sakura watched the clock through interwoven fingers, every minute that ticked down feeling more like an hour. Tazuna made several calls (which quickly devolved into several shouting matches) with his workers.

Not a single one was willing to work on the bridge, not after Gato had found out about it. If they were to ignore his demands, it was no longer just their lives on the line, it was their families too.

After the fourteenth worker refused, Tazuna gave it up, placing the rickety old phone down with a sigh. It looked like he was on his own in the labor department.

The clock continued to wind down with the trio of rookie ninja beginning to feel sick with dread. It was an interesting feeling, having to accept the fact that you might die within the next day. It made you think about what you'd done up until that point, what friends you'd made and what you wished to accomplish in the future. Its reflective powers were so great, even, that you tended to get lost in the flow of time while you recounted your own.

They only realized this when the small hand hit the hour.

Kakashi's footsteps behind them were not meant to be antagonistic, but in this context, they were heavy and foreboding.

"It's time to go." He said, usual monotone sending fearful shivers down Team Sevens backs. Naruto was the first one to stand up, either in denial that he would possibly be killed soon, or just as a way of creating a mental "fast band-aid rip" effect…at least, that's what the other two initially thought.

Instead of delusion or acceptance, Naruto's eyes glimmered with something that looked like hope. It was at once inspiring and disturbing.

"You seem happy for a person who has a decent chance of dying soon." Sasuke said, in an attempt to drag the Uzumaki back to earth. Naruto just smiled back at him.

"Nah, I don't think I do. It'd be a pretty shitty story if I died before becoming Hokage. All three of us have stuff we still want to do; we can't just die and leave it all…empty."

Sasuke's brow straightened out, as he only became more concerned for Naruto's potential upcoming mortality. Sakura, on the other hand, perked up somewhat at his speech. It may have been delusional, but it was the refreshing cocktail of both delusional and optimistic that she sorely needed right now.

"That's a good way of looking at it."

"I know!" Naruto didn't miss the chance to pat himself on the back, standing up from the chair. "When you read manga, the main characters don't just die in the first arc do they?"

"How are you sure we're the main characters?" Sasuke asked, with a smile that he couldn't help but suppress.

"Well if we're not, we'll die before we can figure it out, so it doesn't even matter."

Sasuke had to admit that the logic was (kind of) sound, and who was he to try a demotivate his friend. Before he could say anything more though, Tazuna's gruff voice pierced through the conversational lull.

Him, Meiya and Tetsuji were standing in the doorway, all three sporting looks of fake serenity in contrast to their nauseous terror.

"If I don't come back, your mom and your- "Tazuna started.

"You will come back." Meiya sharply cut him off, only to receive a wilting glare in response.

"_If I don't_, the savings are in the bottom draw of my desk. _Here_." He reached into the deep pocket of his pale green shorts and retrieved a key, handing it to Meiya. "If you guys keep doing what you're doing, it'll be enough to live off of. Be careful with your medical business and remember…" Tazuna felt his throat lapse under the weight of his words but he continued to speak. "I lost your mother; I lost your brother…you're everything I've got and I love you."

Before Meiya could even properly react, the loud sound of crying began to become audible from behind her.

"That was…_**beautiful!**_" Tetsuji practically shouted to Tazuna between sniffles and wails. If nothing else, his unnecessary cries completely defused the conversations weight and tension, Meiya breaking out into a smile instead of anything overemotional.

"I love you too dad." She said, placing her glasses in her pocket and reaching over to hug him. It was quick, but it meant a lot. This may have been the last time they were going to see the other.

What didn't mean a lot was when Tetsuji collapsed onto Tazuna, wrapping the old man up into a hug that he desperately didn't want.

"_I LOVE YOU TOO TAZUNA, YOU BETTER COME BACK 'CAUSE-'" _The younger man's words quickly faltered into unintelligible sobs, which only began to calm down as Meiya peeled him off her father and directed him back into the house.

"Christ, he's a loon." Tazuna grumbled, not fully recovered from the invasion into his personal space.

"I know." She replied with an understanding smile.

"Tazuna." Kakashi's voice loomed over them like a shadow, as the copy ninja emerged into sight. "It's time to go."

"Alright then." Tazuna said with a groan. He took a deep breath in, before releasing it and beginning to walk away, backpack heavy with fear and, you know, actual bricks. Kakashi and the genin tailed him, Naruto taking time to wave goodbye to Meiya and a-tissue-cushioned Tetsuji.

Fresh, cool air blew into his face, freezing the tips of his smile as he looked at Tazuna.

Heroes still existed. He was going to show him.

The walk to the bridge was short, maybe a few minutes give and take, yet it felt like an eternity. Everyone in the group (sans Kakashi) was on edge, constantly jumping backwards at even the smallest sound bustling through the leaves.

Smells of seawater and salt intensified as they got closer and closer to the bridge. The sky was overcast, painting the land of waves in a murky grey. Residual puddles of water splashed around the genins feet, raining down bullets of water onto their sandals.

"Well, here we go." Tazuna said, voice not contain even a hint of enthusiasm. The bridge was wide and white, with cheap with copper red railings running down it's sides. Its large form teetered of into nothing, as it had only been half built (if even).

Underneath it lay a moat of ocean water, it's wavelength inky with pollution. Tazuna crouched downwards and discarded his large backpack, pulling out a few tools as well as a large stack of white bricks.

Kakashi carefully watched the builder, making sure nothing was amiss, until his ears picked up the sound of hurried footsteps behind him.

In a split second, he retrieved a kunai (realizing it couldn't have been any of his students in front of him) and turned around, just _barley _blocking Zabuza's strike with the knife. He rolled backwards onto his feet, keeping an eye locked onto Zabuza and the other onto the genin.

"Protect Tazuna." He yelled to them, all of whom wasted no time in surrounding the older man in a circular defensive stance. With this, he put his complete attention on Zabuza's sudden intrusion, only to find the man was not alone.

He stood at the start of the bridge, assistant at his side. His tape was messily wrapped, and his wrist and leg warmers hadn't even been washed since the last time he and Kakashi had fought. Even the hidden mist jutsu appeared to have been half-heartedly cast, the fog only now beginning to intensify as it gravitated from the bridges head.

"Maybe don't make as many calls to your guys next time." Zabuza said, eyes beady with psychopathic excitement. "Gato had a big price on your head, it was logical once of 'em was gonna snitch."

Tazuna grumbled expletives under his breath.

"Haku, take those three." The mist-ninja shouted, before motioning his left hand towards the trio to the back. With this instruction, Haku seemingly disappeared completely…until Naruto, Sasuke and Sakura sensed a presence inside their defensive circle that wasn't Tazuna.

Sasukes leg immediately shot out in a hook kick towards the boy's mask, only for it to be caught by Haku. The defenseless Uchiha was thrown into Naruto, taking both of them out. Sakura, who'd now noticed the intruder, reached a hand to her pocket to try and retrieve a kunai, only for Hakus foot to crack outward, slamming her hand against her leg.

"**Ah!**" She felt the knife in her pocket cut her fingertip, the pain prompting her to release her arm into the air…right into Haku's hands, who quickly slammed her against the concrete with a judo throw.

He took a small time to appreciate the victory, only to feel the presence of a large weight on a collision course with the back of his head.

"_Yah!_" Tazuna exclaimed, as he swung his hammer at the back of Haku's head with a disregard of what the end result would be. Unfortunately, he'd never find out, as Haku easily weaved through the strike and tripped Tazuna up.

Now towering over the bridge builder, the masked boy reached into his sash and retrieved a handful of needles. Tazuna had barley come to his senses when he saw Haku raise his arm up, weapons glinting devilishly through the grey skies.

"_**FIRE RELEASE: GRAND FIREBALL JUTSU!**_" Sasukes voice rung out, gaining Hakus attention. The boy turning his head to the side to see a massive wall of flame racing towards him. His hear began to race but outwardly, his mask concealed his fear, painted red eyes simply reflecting the fire's light.

He reached into his sash once more, and this time, he gripped a small bottle. Quickly capping the bottle, he threw its contents (a large amount of water) outwards.

Sasuke and Naruto only saw him weave a few handsigns, before the fire completely overtook his form (giving Tazuna prime opportunity to scamper away). The blonde turned to his friend, grinning ear-to-ear.

"We did it!"

"You're putting a bit too much emphasis on the _we _there." Sasuke replied.

"Whatever!" Naruto replied, simply overjoyed at the fact that they'd seemingly won the fight, and easily at that. Sasuke, however, had not been as confident, centering his gaze upon Haku's position as the steam started to die down.

And that's when he saw it.

A circular half of ice stood where Haku had previously. His fears where confirmed as he saw the red and white anbu mask peek out from behind the defensive fortress. All three genin felt chills run down their spine, half from distress, half from the fact that it was goddamn cold.

Haku raised a hand to the mask, resting it over it's slickly-painted china mold.

"Now this…is interesting."

* * *

Kakashi observed the ice from afar, knowing any interference would open himself up to a lethal assault from Zabuza.

"Ah, ah, ah. Eyes up here Kakashi." His foe said, confirming his theory. Zabuza's stance and gaze were harrowingly disturbed, as the demon of the mist took bumped up and down like he was struggling to stand still. "Take the damn mask off and let's go!"

Kakashi obliged his request, peeling his facemask down to reveal the spiraled, crimson sharingan, which was all Zabuza needed to see before he began to charge forward, Kubikiribōchō at his back.

_**SLING!**_

He rolled downwards, attempting to swing at Kakashis feet but the silver-haired man leapt over the strike, kneeing Zabuza in the face. Before he even fully realized what his own body was doing, Kakashi had blocked his instinctive return strike, kicking the sword out of Zabuza's hands and kneeing him in the face again.

Zabuza's body collapsed to the ground in a heap, a collective power-outage occurring in the electric-grid that was his mind. Pushing himself onto his back, he threw a messy kick out at Kakashi's knee, but it was blocked. This attack had not meant to actually inflict damage however, instead it gave Zabuza enough time to weave the hand seals for a water dragon jutsu.

Using the river below as a power supply, the jutsu took form as the sculpted, liquid beast curled around the sides of the bridge and headed straight for Kakashi. The masked shinobi rolled away from the approaching beast, barley skirting around its lowering neck.

Realizing that Kakashi was no longer in its path, the dragon circled upwards before divebombing back downward at him. Kakashi easily countered the attack however, transmuting the bridges concrete into a dome of rock.

_**FWOOSH!**_

The dragon collided with the shelter, not even putting a dent in it before imploding in on itself. Droplets of its watery remains began to rain down upon the bridge, leaving splatters of darkness upon its pale white material.

Zabuza took no notice of the water dripping down on his back as he was dashing towards the rock structure. He unleashed a devastatingly powerful vertical slash of the seversword, expecting, no, _praying _to feel the sensation of metal ripping through flesh.

To his credit, the rock dome was completely cut in half, Kubikiribōchō slicing through stone like it was butter. Unfortunately for the swordsmen, it's inside was unmistakably empty. Zabuza initially wanted to scream in frustration, but his attention was quickly put on the slips of paper that had been stuck to the domes inside.

_Explosive Tags?_

Before he could react, the ground beneath him rustled and cracked. A pair of hands shot up through the terrain, gabbing Zabuza's ankles before dragging him downwards and fixing him into the floor.

"What?!" He exclaimed, the danger of this situation shooting up from a two to an eleven in barley half a second. That rating only shot up higher as Zabuza noticed small flames running down the tag's length.

_**BOOM!**_

Zabuza was sent flying back from the explosion, chunks of scorched rock following in his wake. He'd been lucky that the domes outer-layer had provided some shielding to the blast, but even with that, he still needed to use his sword to even try and stand up again.

As expected, Kakashi emerged from the belly of the bridge, small shards of hard cement falling through his hair.

"That…eye…" Zabuza could barely breath (an effect that was intensified by the waves already heavy air) yet his fury still allowed him the ability to speak. "…It…knows the future doesn't it?"

The demon of the mist looked about ready to collapse just from speaking, but upon hearing a faint laugh from Kakashi, his body stiffened.

"What's so funny?"

Kakashi's demeanor switched from humorous to serious like he was flicking on a light.

"It's just…ironic. The only thing this eye knows is the past."

Zabuza didn't know what this meant, and he didn't care to learn either. Instead, he charged forwards, hoping that this time, _this time_, maybe he'd hit him.

Kakashi braced.

* * *

The trio of genin felt their nerves tingle as a cool, icy breeze weaved through the air. Haku began to step out from behind his frozen shield as it began to melt down. Naruto was the one to break the silence.

"How's he doing that?" The blonde asked in disbelief. He may not have payed much attention in class, but he knew the wheel of elements didn't include ice.

"Maybe, like, water release mixed with really fine chakra control?" Sakura replied, eyes wide as she came to the realization that three of them were definitely punching above their weight class here.

"Seems like a kekkei genkai." Sasuke replied, eyes locked onto Haku's still yet foreboding form. Something about his enemy's complete immobility uprooted butterflies in Sasukes stomach… at least until Naruto's cough brought his squad mate's attention onto him.

"Uh, yeah, definitely a... kenki gankai." Naruto said, slaughtering the pronunciation like a butcher with a cow. A silence hung between Team Seven before Naruto turned to Sasuke with an unconvincing look of thoughtfulness. "Hey, Sasuke…I don't think Sakura knows what a kaneki bandai is, so you should probably explain it."

"Smooth." Sakura replied sarcastically. Sasuke, on the other hand, was not deterred by Naruto's display of idiocy, especially with his focus centered squarely on Haku.

"A kekkei genkai is a technique or jutsu that is exclusively used by people in the user's bloodline. Obviously, theirs is some sort of ice release." Sasuke said, almost like he was reciting it from a book. He would've continued, but the unmistakable sight of Haku's foot tilting left caught his eye.

And then Haku was gone.

Sasuke immediately rolled outwards onto the pavement, eyes attempting to pierce through his systematic motion.

"Sakura, Naruto, move!" He yelled, as Haku expectedly appeared behind them, the youth effortlessly balancing himself on the copper railings.

Sakura listened and quickly backed away while Naruto throw a forceful kick upwards, only to completely miss due to Haku leaping up into the air. Angling himself towards Naruto like a bullet, Haku froze the air around his feet, creating a platform of ice underneath him.

"Woah" Naruto involuntarily let out, before the ice cracked under Haku's now departed weight and the Uzumaki boy was sent to the ground with three bloody scratches matching his whiskers.

"_**Aah, fuck!**_" He yelled, quickly pushing himself back onto his feet with a hand clutched to his face.

"Wait, didn't he need a water source to freeze things before?" Sasuke confirmed with Sakura, confusion swirling in his eyes.

"Yeah…" Sakura kept her eyes focused on where Haku had formed the ice platform. It was starting to get misty…real misty. The fog may have lay shadows over the scenery, but it did nothing to stop Sakura's mind lighting up, as her vision skewed towards Zabuza.

"Zabuza must've mixed his mist jutsu with water vapor!" She yelled, the situations tension raising her volume.

Sasuke nodded his head in acknowledgment, first making sure Tazuna had gotten out of harm's way (which he had) before turning back to Naruto who was not currently having a good time.

_**BAM!**_

Hakus fist shot out from behind him, clocking him in the head.

_**BAM!**_

Before Naruto even had a chance to drop to the ground, Haku's knee connected with his face and set him back upright.

_**FWOOSH!**_

Haku crouched and extended a leg, sweeping Naruto from underneath and putting him on his back.

Drawing needles, he leapt at his foe only for Naruto to quickly summon a shadow-clone as a human shield. The clone's disembowelment sent mist flying up into Hakus line of sight, enough so that Naruto's floored-dropkick hit him like a shotgun.

He staggered backwards from the attack, only to be pushed forward once again by a sudden high-kick to the back from Sasuke. Sensing the chance to just completely gang up on the mist-shinobi, Naruto threw out a kick directed at Haku's lowered head, but he'd strongly overestimated how out-of-it the other boy actually was.

Haku sidestepped the kick, redirecting its aim towards Sasuke. The Uchiha boy easily caught it, realizing too late that this was actually Haku's intention. Still hanging onto Naruto's leg, Sasuke felt Haku sweep kick him, which sent both of the Konoha genin to the floor.

Sakura leapt out at Haku before he could even get a chance to breath. Her kunai was already drawn, and clearly aimed at her foe's lower region. It was coordinated, _too _coordinated yet Haku took the bait anyway, disarming her of her weapon with a palm strike to her hand.

He could tell by the way she dropped the kunai that it had been a faint, but he'd already committed to the palm-strikes completion and had no time to block the backfist that had been quickly swung at his face.

_**CRACK!**_

Small bits of china fell to the ground, Sakura's attack having chipped the mask around Haku's right eye. The problem was, Sakura had been nearly one hundred percent sure that the was going to be blocked, so the feeling of fist colliding with mask caused her to freeze up in surprise. It wasn't long, but it was more than enough time to let Haku open the window of retaliation, as he blasted Sakura in the face with a back elbow.

With a noticeable glare peeking through the crack of his mask, Haku weaved his hands into seals before bellowing:

"Ice release: Mirror Grid!"

Haku once again disappeared, as a large array of rectangular ice blocks began to form around Team Seven. There was a decent amount of space between each row of blocks, enough so that it wouldn't be difficult to move between them and eventually escape.

The three genin bunched up back-to-back, partly for formation but partly because it was already cold, and the existence of these massive ice sculptures.

_**Crack!**_

_**Crack!**_

_**Crack!**_

Haku emerged from the side, bouncing from one mirror to another like a frog with lillypad's.

"Duck." Sasuke said, prompting all three of them to roll out of the line of attack, at the cost of splitting the three of them off in different directions.

Haku did a quick headcount. Sasuke was at his left, behind one of the mirrors. Sakura was to his right while Naruto directly was in front of him. He blocked a strike from the pink-haired kunoichi, throwing her back against a nearby ice wall.

Sensing Sasuke was going to be the next to attack, Haku sharply elbowed the mirror on his left, dominioing it into Sasuke's face. He dodged Sakuara's recoiling attack, jumping above her punch and clutching himself on the mirror he'd just used to attack Sasuke.

He pressed his weight to its side, sending the ice construct up into Sakura's jaw and dropping her to the ground. The sound of hurried footsteps redirected his concentration, as Naruto threw an elbow strike. The attack was slow, slow enough that Haku could leap backwards to avoid the boy, using the now perfectly horizontal mirror as a divide.

Before Naruto even realized he'd missed, Haku pressed the barricade forward, wedging Naruto in-between the impromptu battering ram and another mirror behind him.

* * *

"Kakashi! **Kakashi**! Your kid's-" Tazuna screamed, orbiting the outskirts of the ice grid. It had been made clear that Haku was too far out of Team 7's wheelhouse for them to handle and all the bridge builder could do was try and call Kakashi's attention to it.

Unfortunately for him, Kakashi was slightly occupied at the moment.

Zabuza's blade crashed down against the ground, each and every attempt to hit Kakashi ending with him slicing the ground. A final diagonal slash was easily dodged, earning the jonin an easy opening that led to him delivering a head-spinning kick just below Zabuza's chin.

Putting his bodyweight on one heel, he spun around, hand-signs weaving together the signs for a fireball jutsu. His sharingan spiraled around in its socket, locking onto Haku to ensure peak precision…only for the sound of scraping metal against the ground to make him forfeit that plan.

Kakashi turned back around to see Zabuza making a desperate leap at him, sword prepared at his side.

_**FWOOSH!**_

The demon of the mist's eyes lit up as he cut across Kakashi's thigh, blood trickling down onto the navy blue jonin pants.

"_**Got ya**_!" Zabuza screamed, lunging forward to hopefully follow up with a beheading.

Kakashi felt his leg throb in pain, but he couldn't focus on that now. Instead, his half-monochrome glare centered on the approaching sword.

_He's swinging from the left. No time for hand seals, __**that **__would take us both out from this distance. I'll have to…_

The sword veered dangerously close to Kakashi's face, but this intrusion was only temporary, as Kakashi flopped to the ground, rolling backwards underneath Zabuza's swing. His calculations were proven correct, as the sword's blade was well out of his way when he reached his feet.

"Damn it- "Zabuza started to growl, realizing what was coming next.

_**CRACK!**_

Kakashi pumped his elbow backward like a shotgun, the attack connecting flush with Zabuza's cheek. The man tasted blood and concrete as he faceplanted, red-stains once again adorning his bandages.

In the meanwhile, Kakashi backed up slightly, recomposing himself for the unpredictable fight ahead. His leg painful throbbing became more pronounced as his adrenaline started to lower, but it wasn't his main concern right now.

What he was really worried about was that now he fully realized he couldn't take his eyes off Zabuza.

At this moment in time, Team Seven were on their own.

* * *

Naruto felt his stomach groan, either in hunger or the fact that there was a massive square of ice pressing onto it. Either way, he was starting to feel nauseous. Really nauseous.

It was weird, despite the freezing sensation pressing down on it, his gut started to feel…warm.

"Get off." He said to Haku, tone uncharacteristically low.

Haku said nothing in response.

"I said…_**GET THE FUCK OFF!**_" The ice began to slightly melt around Naruto, who dug his now-sharpened fingers into it. Ice chipped around his claw-like hands, while his normally blue eyes began to shine a deep red.

For the first time since he'd started the fight, Haku faced physical push-back, but it was not like he was unprepared. As Naruto began to push the ice block away, Haku decided to help him and pulled it upward, holding it vertically before…

_**SMASH!**_

Any heat radiating from Naruto quickly fizzled out as Haku threw the large brick of ice onto him, not only causing it to smash over the jinchuriki, but also sending him stumbling through the mirror behind him.

"_Oooh._" He groaned from the floor, shards of ice cutting into his back and cheek. It stung. It really fucking stung.

Haku, in the meanwhile, mentally marked Naruto as out of commission, at least for now and decided his focus was better spent on the other two. It wasn't like you could really hide in the decently-spaced grid, so he easily found the both of them.

The Uchiha was obviously the bigger threat, so he set his sights on him first. Interestingly enough, upon seeing him, Sasuke began to dash away, seemingly fearful of falling victim to the same fate as Naruto.

Haku was faster though. Add in his familiarity with the terrain and he begun to easily gain on Sasuke, leaping from mirror to mirror. Sasuke bounded forwards, twisting his head around with hand seals at the ready.

"_**FIRE RELEASE: PHOENIX FLOWER JUTSU!"**_

Multiple bursts of scorching flame shot outwards, Haku dodging through all of them with a speed Sasuke couldn't plan for. Like a human sniper shot, the youth centered on Sasuke, reaching a hand outward.

He swore he could feel Sasukes breath he was so close to him. Just a few centimeters more and…

_**FWOOSH!**_

Sasuke never stopped his momentum, flopping down on his stomach and sliding legs-first under a mirror. Speaking of the mirrors, it was now that Haku noticed them in a strange formation. The grid shape that he'd summoned them in had been replaced with five of them set up facing him directly.

Then he noticed the rope.

Sakura yanked the thick thread forwards, sending the mirrors crashing down upon Haku. Each one smashed over the boys back, shattering into smaller pieces that cut him through his haori. Blood ran down the green fabric, contrastly staining it.

Haku just stood there, whether in silent rage or simply pain Sakura and Sasuke couldn't figure out. It made little difference, Sasuke reasoned and his pointed his face towards the sky.

"_**FIRE RELEASE: GRAND FIREBALL JUTSU." **_He yelled, sending a massive wave of flame up into the sky in an attempt to remove any traces of water in the air that Haku could use for freezing.

_**Fwoosh!**_

Needles shot out at Sasuke, the Uchiha having to roll away to prevent looking like an acupuncture dummy.

He looked back at Haku.

Haku was no longer calm.

Haku was fucking pissed.

Chakra began to swirl around the mist-ninja's feet, ice shards in his back melting to the chorus of Zabuza's nearby laughter.

"Oh, here we go. It's game over!"

The remaining mirrors began to levitate off the ground, swirling around into a dome-like formation.

Sasuke and Sakura both darted to the side, the latter managing to get out of the structure. Sasuke, on the other hand, had his escape path cut off by a rain of needles. Before he could cut around them, he had already been fully enclosed in the mirror arena.

"_Ah…_what the hell?!" A growl came from his side.

And he was fully enclosed with a half-unconscious Naruto. Great.

Scanning his surroundings, his eyes widened.

Haku's reflection stood solemnly in every mirror, eye's peering at the two genin with a combination of shiny red painted stillness in the pained one and predator-like hunger in his other.

"_**Second Formation:" **_Haku's voice echoed for every reflection.

"_**DEMONIC CRYSTAL ICE MIRRORS." **_


	9. Peak

_Haku's slender hands clenched, child-like eyes gazing over at the small rabbit. It gently kicked its foot over its ears, uprooting dust from its thick woo coatl. He'd have laughed if the looming voice over his shoulder wasn't telling him to kill it. Haku clenched his hands again, almost hopping the bunny would take the cue and runaway but that was clearly not going to happen. It just kept on kicking up dust that would go on to coat its small, funny features and brown, shiny fur. _

"_The hell are you waiting for?" Zabuza growled, resting on the backing of a tree. The sound of flowing rivers and loud bird sounds ran rampant through the forest depths, creating an uneasy yet pleasant air of serenity. Haku turned to him with tears welling up in his eyes. _

"…_I don't want to kill it." _

_Zabuza looked down at his newly-adopted apprentice with an almost analyzing look. Half of it was frustrated and half of it was compassionate, only becoming more prominent as Zabuza crouched down to speak to Haku more directly. _

"_Kid, look, I picked you to be __**my**__ trump card against Terumi and the rest of those mist bootlickers. Do you know what I did at your age?" He asked, knowing that Haku knew the answer. _

"_You killed your best friend."_

"_I killed my best friend, right." Zabuza brushed over the fact with a causality that really should not have been featured in the same statement. "I killed my best friend and you can't kill a bunny. Do you see the disconnect there?" _

_Haku didn't say anything but his face essentially answered "yes." Slowly, he refocused his gaze on the rabbit, Zabuza squatting down behind him to help. _

"_Focus on your __**food**__." _

_Haku suppressed a bubble of sadness in his throat, and shoved out his shaky hands in a diamond shape. In accordance to his kekkai genaki, frost began to run up them. His skin turned white and blisteringly cold, the boy biting down on his lip and pulling back his hands from their formation. The crawling freeze slowed to a halt as Haku recoiled from his own attack with a yelp. Suddenly, he felt another hand lock up his arms. Looking backwards, he saw Zabuza dragging them back into the diamond position, a look of compassion in his razor-like stare. _

"_Steady." He said, refocusing the bunny in Haku's line of sight. "Don't be scared of your own power." _

_Haku nodded, hands beginning to turn white again but this time he didn't yelp or jump away, despite visibly wincing. The ice began to manifest at his fingertips, sharpening under the cold forest air._

_The bunny paused, for just a second. _

* * *

Bad to worse was the best way to describe the situation the genin had found themselves in, with Sasuke and a drowsy Naruto stuck inside Haku's ice formation, while Sakura orbited around the outskirts. Zabuza howled with laughter, beady eyes rippling with a look of assured victory.

"Your kids are fucking dead Kakashi! **Fucking dead!**" He yelled, while Kakashi shakily attempted to keep his focus on him. Every so often, the copy ninjas eyes would trail over to his genin, but these glances were quickly snuffled out a he knew even the slightest moment of hesitation was enough for Zabuza to capitalize on.

Sasuke in the meanwhile, kept his focus squarely on Haku, or more accurately, Haku's. Each mirror held a reflection of the boy. Though his posture was solid, his psyche was not, sharp breaths of fear escaping from his mouth ever so often. His opponent's stillness only served to intensify his nerves even more, Sasuke looking for even the slightest movement from Haku in order to plan his own.

_Must be some sort of clone jutsu…but then how is he __**in**__ the mirrors? If I just…_

Sasuke suddenly shot his foot out to the side, intending to retract it back out in an attempt to bait Haku. As his foot skid through the concrete though, the mirrors suddenly became blank with Haku nowhere to be seen.

_Huh?_

This emptiness lasted for a split second, before Haku returned, bringing along a sharp pain into Sasukes foot. Spinning on his heel, Sasuke shot a look towards his sandal, finding multiple needles had been imbedded into it. Blood trickled down the navy-blue sandal, as Sasuke winced it pain.

_How?! I didn't even see him move._

Out of the corner of his eye, Sasuke saw a speck of motion, prompting him to turn around to face it. It wasn't just a spark of motion however, no, it was a whole powder keg of it, as Haku's reflections began to push their hands outwards. Before the Uchiha could fully grasp the implications of this, a pair of hands gripped onto his back, clutching his shoulders tightly before violently throwing him back against the ice mirror. The impact of the attack pushed the wind out of Sasukes lungs, as well as causing his eyes to shut in instinctively.

As he rested a hand on his back, motion reverberated above him, not giving him enough time to open his eyes before Hakus feet came slamming into his rib with the mist ninja having used the mirror above him as an improvised swing. Sasukes body completely slumped downwards, the young boy barley managing to open his eyes at the sound of Haku's footsteps. This regained vision was noticed by his foe, however, Haku quickly throwing a smoke bomb out of his sash in order to conceal his movements.

When it cleared, there was no sign of the boy's physical form, only his reflection in the mirrors remaining. Sasuke braced against the mirror, realizing any attempt at escape would just end with him receiving a few extra stab wounds.

His breath was short, not helped by the cold, his body ached and his foot _**really fucking hurt**_.

"Hey, Sasuke…" The boy's attention was drawn to a floored Naruto, who's slightly glazed-over blue eyes reflected back in Sasukes own. Judging by the dampness on his palms, he'd obviously dragged himself towards his friend. "…this guy's pretty tough, huh?"

"…Yep." Sasuke replied through sharp pants, Naruto's carefree tone seeming completely unbecoming to the situation.

"We'll kick his ass."

Sasuke took a small amount of time to debate whether agreeing with Naruto would technically be lying.

"…Yeah, we'll kick his ass."

Naruto grinned, throwing up an open palm. Sasuke returned the smile, quickly slapping the outstretched hand only for Naruto's face to wilt up at the impact.

"…That wasn't a high-five, I just need ya' to help me up."

"Oh." Sasuke replied, somewhat embarrassed as he began to clutch Naruto's hand. The blonde returned his friend's awkwardness with a smile.

"Don't worry…_it can be both._" He said, last part of the sentence becoming strained due to Naruto experiencing the forgotten feeling of elevation that Sasuke had let him regain. While kicking his legs outward to try and recirculate their motion, Naruto's focus darting towards the mirror wall. His blue eyes immediately went wide at the sight.

"Woah! There's like, at least seven of him!" He exclaimed, earning a raised eyebrow from Sasuke.

"What's the highest you can count up too?"

Sasuke never got an answer, the sound of needles piercing the air becoming a more important issue to both of them. Sasuke quickly dodged out of their path with Naruto replicating his actions, albeit sloppily.

Naruto's roll edged him a little too close to one of the mirrors, giving him little room to move once another barrage of needles came flying at him.

"_**Aah!**_" He backed up, despite the fact that that he was completely cornered. However, the mirrors weight that had just stood against him suddenly began to shift, sending him spilling out onto…the pavement of the bridge?

"…Ha…haha!" Naruto laughed at Haku's apparent mistake with a clear nonchalance for the fact that every action had an equal and opposite reaction. The ice mirror continued to rotate, shifting onto a horizontal incline with its edges nearly touching Naruto's back. It made no difference as, from the ice, a pair of hands shot outwards and gripped onto Naruto's collar.

The boy shrieked as the mirror continued its path to its original position, the hands using the momentum to slam Naruto onto the inside pavement. The Uzumakis thick head throbbed under the pain, as he began to taste blood.

His gaze was loose and glazed-over, but he still spotted Haku's reflection in the mirror beside him. Not only that, but the mirror itself was becoming sharper and _sharper…_

_**CRACK!**_

Naruto rolled to his side, just enough to save his life as several large spears of ice shoot at him. Much like a short person reaching for a shelf, the spears began to crack under themselves, failing to impale Naruto by nothing more than an inch. Soon, they had been disposed of, falling to the ground and shattering by order of Haku's will.

Naruto hastily pushed himself off the ground and waved through his hand-seals, before letting out a cry of:

"Shadow clone jutsu!"

At least half a dozen clones emerged in the array of smoke that followed, each one leaping upwards at Haku's dome of mirrors.

_Blink._

_**BAMF!**_

_**BAMF!**_

_**BAMF!**_

In the literal blink of an eye, all of Naruto's clones had been dispatched. The original let out a loud, almost animalistic growl at this, his anger probably stemming from the fact that his only real jutsu had been bested so easily.

While that may have been childlike in his case, the sight of the shadow clones being completely trumped even made Sasuke nervously grit his teeth. The sound of wave-ravaged wind became louder and louder through the dome, blocking out any noise that came through. _Any noise. _

* * *

"_**NARUTO! SASUSKE!" **_Sakura yelled, attempting (quite impractically) to project her voice loud enough to reach her teammates through the cocoon of ice. A few seconds worth of yelling and banging on the mirrors earned her nothing in the way of a sign of acknowledgment, the girl seemingly invisible through the tiny spaces between each mirror.

_**UGH, Jeez, you think they'd be able to spot the girl wearing ALL PINK ON A WHITE BACKDROP! **_

She quickly calmed herself down, biting down of her cheek in an attempt to brainstorm a way to get the two out of their predicament. The answer was pretty simple, so much so that Sakura was left mentally slapping herself for not thinking of it immediately.

She stuck the explosive tag down against the ice, ripping the ignition strip off and setting it alight. This display of stunning, chunin-level competency was swiftly followed by Sakura _leaping _away from the blast radius like someone was dropping a fucking meteor on her.

_**BANG!**_

The tag imploded against the ice, sending residual smoke seeping through the air. Sakura quickly scampered back to the site of the blast radius, wafting away the thick gas with her palm only to find…the mirror was completely fine…

_Huh?_

Sakura just stood there for a few seconds, attempting to grasp her head around the fact that she'd put an explosive on the mirror yet the mirror had not blown up. Instead, it stood solid in its formation.

_**What the hell? It's just…ice, isn't it?**_

She quickly ran a finger over the surface, feeling cold, sparse drips of water coat it.

_**Yep, definitely ice. But then…how is it so strong?**_

She frustratedly grabbed a kunai out of her pouch, and jabbed it into the mirror. While it was not initially able to penetrate it, Sakura felt a certain amount of give course through her wrist. She immediately pursued it, hacking away at the mirror again and again until finally, she managed to embed the kunai in the mirrors back.

This may have been a technical achievement, but the kunoichi struggled to reason what purpose this held. She'd barley broken anything more than a tiny hole for the kunai to rest in the ice. At the rate she was cutting it with, she'd be able to chop down the mirror in six hours with the most generous of estimates.

Sighing, she peered through the small cracks between each mirror, retrieving the kunai from its entrenched position. She saw Naruto and Sasuke dodging something that her vision was too obscured to see properly.

What she really focused on though, were the multiple Haku's that stood in every mirror. Her eyes became tinted with confusion.

_**Is that…a clone jutsu?**_

Breath hitching, she suddenly realized that her peering view aligned perfectly with one of the far-away mirrors.

_**Shit, can he see me?!**_

The combination of painted mask and human eye leered back at her icily, Haku unmoving in the mirror. There was a weird amount of silence and stillness between the two of them that mad Sakura feel like she was about to be killed in away that was too fast for her to even figure out what would be going on.

It sent a shiver down her spine, yet that shiver was all too quickly replaced with the feeling of heat. She turned around briefly, finding the warmth stemming from the small slivers of sunlight that had managed to escape the murky sky.

They were slight and sharp, the sun's pink/orange gradient barley bleeding through the dark, grey clouds, yet despite the small-scale of this occurrence it had given Sakura a _**very **_important piece of information.

As she looked back at Haku's mirror, only to find he partially wasn't there. The use of the word "partially" stemmed from the fact that there was an angled chunk of Haku that simply wasn't there. The sunlight saw through him, revealing a strip of flat, non-inhabited ice underneath. It was almost like he was…

_**A reflection?!**_

* * *

Every attempt Zabuza made to attack was met with the same result, no matter the strategy or the speed or the crispness of his movements. Every time, he ended up with his face back on the pavement. Every time, he pushed himself back up.

He had no leverage over Kakashi. Those kids were taken care off, Tazuna had taken cover at the edge of the bridge, it was just him and Kakashi fighting at their best.

It would've been cool if he hadn't been getting his ass kicked.

Zabuza charged him again, throwing out a flurry of deceptively precise strikes, each one focused on shifting Kakashis weight onto his injured right leg. A slice to the right earned a kunai-aided block, further shifting Kakashi backward.

Zabuza shot his bodyweight downwards, transferring his weight into a sweeping slash. Kakashi was all too ready to jump over it, not expecting the demon of the mist to quickly uproot his sword.

It's not like this attack was undefeatable, hell, Kakashi bested it a few seconds after it's conception. He pivoted his body backwards in midair, launching off the flat side of Zabuzas sword in order to gain distance.

He landed.

And he stumbled. Only slightly, but he still stumbled, obviously not prepared to land on his right leg. Zabuza _**blasted **_forward, running faster than he ever had in his life. If he could've seen his eyes in a mirror, he would've been disgusted, but right now, he didn't care.

Because he knew what came next.

Kakashi mentally and psychically hitting the panic mode button. Lighting crawled over his hand, jittering widely from all sides. The leaf jonin braced himself, preparing to charge back with newfound composure, only for that composure to be completely eradicated as he looked downwards.

There was a puddle.

His sharingan locked onto Zabuza's foot, which moved so fast even the dojutsu could barely track it. Any attempt at a reply was too late, as Zabuza kicked the water upwards into Kakashi's hand. Immediately the sensation of electricity began to run down Kakashi's arm, the reaction causing sparks to fly out and burn his fingers. He stepped back yet again, putting more weight on the cut leg. Considering his whole body was being jolted with voltage, it was too much for the leg and Kakashi began to slip over.

Zabuza leapt into the air, using his body's natural downward force to unleash a slash that would surely cleave Kakashi into vertical halves if it connected. What he didn't realize however, was just how much he had committed on the attack. He'd broken his own defense, and no longer had much control of his is why, when Kakashi raised a still shaking, still electrified palm up to the sword, Zabuza had no defense. The current became shared between them, Zabuzas grip loosening on the hilt of his sword. Any attempt at a grip was lost on the sword as it quickly slipped out of his hands, hitting the ground next to Kakashi.

Both jonin landed flat on their backs, the last of the electricity beginning to disperse through them. Zabuza pushed himself up to his feet, occasional spasms still jilting through his limbs, telling him he shouldn't walk.

He didn't listen.

Instead he began to stride over to the apparently limp Kakashi, who'd taken the full brunt of the electric shock. Slowly, Zabuza retrieved the sword, having to halt his own movements in order to prevent falling down from simply crouching. His hand meekly grabbed the seversword, hoisting it upwards with a speck of regained mobility. His beady gaze lingered on Kakashi, though not for much longer as he thrusted the sword upward and then downwards onto his body with enough force to turn him into shiskabab.

_**BAMF.**_

Another fucking substation.

Zabuza wasted no time with audible expletive's this time, immediately thrusting his sword backwards at Kakashi. Unfortunately for him, Kakashi was expectedly a step head, gripping onto Zabuza's sword and using its own weight to throw him backwards. The mist nin _crashed_ into the metal railing, denting it almost to the point of sending him to the water behind it.

"_Ah_, **fuck!**" He groaned. If his body wasn't at its best post-electricity, it **definitely **wasn't now.

_**FWOOSH!**_

The sound of wind became even more prevalent behind him, Zabuza giving a sluggish roll in response. As he redirected himself towards the newfound threat, he saw Kakashi balancing on the railing like it was a tightrope.

With a grunt, Zabuza went back on the offensive. However, his judgment of Kakashi's control was severely lacking, the man first striking with an overhead slash. In response, Kakashi dropped backwards, keeping a wide grip on the fence before _swing back through the middle of it _and kicking Zabuza in the gut.

It was more rage-inducing than actually painful, and that was exactly what Kakashi intended. By the time Zabuza came lumbering back, he'd already used his momentum to swing backwards up the railing, grabbing Zabuzas head between his knees before falling back downwards. This sent his foe head-first into the metal, his skull hideously cracking off began to prominently run down Zabuzas head, a large scratch having formed from the collision with the already dented metal. Even this was not enough to fully slow him down though, as he quickly unleashed two strikes of his blade.

At first Kakashi thought they were desperate, battle-incoherent slashes but then he felt himself start to slip. Zabuza had sliced the railing clean off it's foundation, sending Kakashi falling with it. Thinking quickly, the jonin pressed his bodyweight backwards, sending the piece of rail in the same direction. As it briefly rotated horizontally, Kakashi shot upright, leaping at the bottom of the bridge.

Zabuza knew what was coming next, taking off in a sprint, only to hear the crumbling sounds of a man burrowing through the rubble. The sound became louder and louder, at a rate that was significantly faster than Zabuza's own sprint. Realizing he had no chance at avoidance, Zabuza began to focus squarely on the looming noise waiting until it got louder and _louder_…

_**SLASH!**_

He turned sharply on his heel, unleashing a slash that was perfectly timed with the erupting earth behind him. His sword cut through it's target like a hot knife through butter, easily tearing up the last shreds of…

_A chunin jacket?!_

Foam and fabric splattered to the floor, as Zabuza felt a surging pressure underneath him. Before he could react, the floor cracked and his ankles were seized. The floor completely gave way, sinking Zabuza roughly through a bed of rocks and grime. When his vision was regained, it came bundled with the feeling of blood rushing to his head.

The sound of the ocean became all the clearer, along with his location. Kakashi had perched himself under the bridge, clutching Zabuza to his chest while hanging from his feet. A flick of the silver-haired mans' wrist brought forth a sharpened kunai. It's sharp, wind-cutting vibrations told Zabuza to think fast or he'd die. It etched closer and closer to his face; lethal glint dulled by shadow yet somehow still prominent. The actual kunai attack probably took around a second to complete, but to Zabuza, it moved in slow motion. Each microsecond the knife spent not killing him gifted Zabuza another idea of how to avoid it, only to realize how Kakashi had planned for that idea.

_He's got my hands which means I can't use jutsu, legs are trapped, sword's stuck on the bridge…_

The blade came inches away from directly stabbing Zabuza in the mouth but its piercing was halted with the sound of a loud

_**CLINK!**_

The blade had been stopped beneath his teeth.

Kakashi's eyes widened as he the blade became stuck between Zabuza's tusks.

_**CRACK!**_

"_Aah!"_

Using the commitment and positioning on Kakashi's attack, Zabuza wrestled back control of his head before promptly throwing it back into his opponents' nose. This, in turn, freed Zabuza's arms which immediately twisted into hand-signs.

"_Water Release: Rising Geyser!"_

The ocean below began to bubble and shake, eventually shooting upward towards both ninjas.

_**BAM!**_

The bridges foundation at first fought the forceful fountain as it pushed upwards. After about two seconds of holding though, it gave out and both Kakashi and Zabuza were shot upward onto land. They were drenched and coughing up water. Zabuza began to crawl forwards towards his previously discarded sword while Kakashi turned his attention to two injuries. The first was his leg, the lull in combat giving him an opportunity to speedily bandage it up. TThe second was a meek cut on his finger. It was shallow and barley stung, but seeing the blood begin to drip down gave him a bright idea of what to do next…

* * *

"Left!" Sasuke called out, him and Naruto both barely managing to avoid the rain of sharpened needles that descended onto them. Sasuke quickly recovered from his dodge, kicking away the floor-embedded needles with the forethought that they would become a problem air was becoming increasingly thin in the dome. Not to the point of viable strangulation, but enough that both him and Naruto were beginning to lose their breath. There were definitely gaps in the mirrors formation but the light that was refracting off said mirrors made it impossible to see through.

A curious part of him had to admit that the ice mirror formation was genius. No outside sound could penetrate it (he'd felt the tremors of Kakashi's earth jutsu earlier, so it was safe to say Zabuza and Kakashi were making noise) and any sound made inside echoed around enough that audibly discussing strategies was a no-go unless they wanted Haku to know every inch of their plan.

"Sasuke?" Naruto asked through jilted, unstable breaths.

"Yeah?"

"…Have we hit him, like, once?"

The word "**once**" continually echoed around the chamber, bouncing from mirror to mirror. Sasuke shook his head in response. His attention was far away from Naruto's question, instead focusing more on when exactly Haku was moving.

Even the smallest click of the air set off his sense, prompting the Uchiha to unleash a fire style attack into the air. Each and every mirror was encased by the flame, but to say it was ineffective would be an understatement. From his position in the mirror, Haku was only amused by the undertaking, even more so by the faces of Naruto and Sasuke when they saw how little damage the fire had done. The two faces were distinctively different in their befuddlement though, Sasuke's one of frustration while Naruto's was one of confusion.

"The hell? Fires' meant to melt ice isn't it?"

"That's what they say." Sasuke grumbled back.

Haku would've laughed if it wasn't so sad.

A sharp shot of nausea through his stomach nevertheless alerted him right back to the task at hand. The demonic crystal ice mirrors may have been formidable, but they were also a heavy burden on Haku's chakra supplies. It was strange, he held no affection to the Uchiha boy but couldn't help himself feel…sadden when thinking of killing "Uaruto". His eyes were not only filled with kindness, but were also seeping with affixation for his dream.

"_So all the people in the village stop ignoring me and start treating me like I'm somebody__!"_

The poor boy may not have even known why he truly wanted to achieve his dream, yet that just made it crueler in Haku's eyes. To rob a child of their dream before they'd fully explored it. That was just too cruel…

At even the smallest shimmer of self-doubt, he let out sharp breath in, focusing fully on Naruto. This was what he had to do in these situations, just imagine the bunny_. _He slipped his hands into the diamond shape, sliding several needles in between his finger's. He centered the middle of his hands directly on Naruto's head, taking in one more breath before…

Sasuke and Naruto both blinked and Haku was behind them.

It was the Uchiha who noticed first, strangely bloodshot-eyes darting towards Haku, yet he knew he wasn't fast enough to stop the impending kill. Sasuke felt his stomach sink, realizing where Haku's needles were aimed.

_He's going to try and dig them into the back of Naruto's head._

Observing the angle the needles were being slashed at, Sasuke reasoned it might not directly kill him, but it would be enough to immobilize him which meant he was as good as dead in this situation. His normal calling of Naruto to dodge wouldn't work, Haku was already too close and he _highly _doubted the idiot had the reaction times to counteract that. He couldn't block the attack himself; it'd leave him completely open so Haku would just kill them both anyway. What he needed was a way to get Naruto to duck…

Then the idea hit him.

Sasuke's foot backed up into Naruto's crotch.

"_**AAAAAAAAAH!**_" Naruto screamed louder than he would have had he gotten stabbed in the back of the head, but he was also in so much pain that he dropped down to the ground, involuntarily dodging Hakus lethal strike. Despite being a relatively quick thinker, Haku had not planned for this and as a result, Sasuke's boot came crashing into his stomach. The masked boy was sent crashing back into a mirror, Sasuke quickly leaping into the air and attempting to follow through with a kick to his head.

Regaining his composure, Haku dodged the blow, Sasukes foot only hitting ice instead of anything resembling a human. In a familiar fashion to what had happened to Naruto earlier, the ice began to sharpen under his sandals, but Sasuke saw it coming from a mile away. Before the ice could start to protrude, he pushed himself off the mirror like a bullet aimed at Haku.

The punch he delivered was all momentum and no power, allowing Haku to easily dodge around it. What he didn't see, was Naruto sneaking up behind him, fist clenched. The Uzumaki threw a heavy punch, but that heaviness was its downfall, as Haku sensed the weight of the wind behind him and realized he needed to duck. Naruto on the other hand, had committed so much power on the punch that he went stumbling forwards next to Sasuke.

Yet even in these dire straits, the sight of the Uchiha boy got his anger boiling. Naruto decided to completely discard any care about the person trying to kill him in favor of screaming at his friend.

"WHY'D YOU KICK ME IN THE BALLS ASSHOLE?!" Naruto yelled, raising his fist up in what appeared to be a threat to punch Sasuke if he did not give an explanation. Considering the person who was standing right in front of them, this would be a phenomenally stupid move but one Sasuke would not put past Naruto.

"He was about to stab you in the back of the head moron, I got you out of the way!" Sasuke replied, more focused on Haku than getting into a petty argument with Naruto.

"Oh, okay." This answer seemed to satisfy Naruto, who quickly turned back to his opponent…only to twist back towards Sasuke like a rubber band being flicked on a schoolboy's fingers. "How do I know you're not lying?!"

Sasuke's brain pulsated with pain by the stupidity of this statement, his levels of anger going from a ten to a one-hundred in not even half-a-second. "WHY THE FUCK WOULD I DO IT IF NOT FOR THAT REASON?!"

He received no answer, as both he and Naruto were forced to dodge out of the way of an incoming rain of needles. Sasuke weaved through them as they shot straight outwards, Haku not afforded the luxury of attacking from high terrain anymore. Naruto on the other hand, lacked the capacity to properly avoid the attack, instead just rolling onto his back and letting the needles hit hm.

Haku was quick to attempt a follow up attack, but a sharp shot of nausea through his stomach halted his movements. His chakra reserve was not completely dry or even close to it, but he was definitely working with borrowed time. Symptoms of chakra fatigue included nausea, limited degradation of motor functions and lowered spatial awareness. Speaking of which…

Haku's vision jilted back to normal, only to find that his chakra withdrawal had left him in a perilous situation. Both Naruto and Sasuke were charging at him, recovering from their injuries in the time he'd spaced out. Running out at the front of the pack, Sasuke's knee sharply shot outwards. In response, Haku pushed his back outwards in a dodge, which (as a side-effect) moved his legs closer to the pair of genin. He realized all too late that this had been Sasuke's intention, the Uchiha's knee stopping sharply in the air, before he transitioned into a sweep kick with his other foot.

Haku's balance became non-existent, the kick swiftly throwing him off his feet and onto the ground. By the time he'd prepared to retreat to the safety of his mirrors, the cry of "NARUTO, BLOCK THE MIRRORS" had already rung out, dozens of shadow clones emerging and gripping onto the walls of ice. Haku rolled backwards, as the true Naruto descended onto him. His mind raced, attempting to shrug off chakra fatigue and come up with some plan that would counter-act the clones.

Using ice-spears on every mirror would leave his chakra completely shot and end up shattering the formation. With the clones on every mirror, he couldn't enter it, not without a reflection. Killing just one or two of them would expose this fact to Naruto and Sasuke and allow them to guard the mirror he was in. It didn't matter how fast he was, if they knew where he was hiding there was a good chance they could catch him. On top of this dilemma, Haku now also had to deal with the combined taijutsu of them both. After a few kicks and punches connected with his stomach, Haku reasoned that his plan to reopen the mirrors should be put on the backburner

A punch from Sasuke, a kick from Naruto, now Naruto kicked and then Sasuke followed. Naruto attacked high, Sasuke went for his legs. Even though the two were genin, their taijutsu was competent enough that the two of them were managing to push Haku back (though their attacks rarely went unparried or unblocked). The masked ninja let out an uncharacteristic growl of anger, as he felt the tide turning against him for the first time since he'd started the fight.

Though Naruto was providing most of the power behind the attacks, he noticed that may have been intentional. Almost like a dance, Sasuke would simply fill in the blanks of Naruto's assaults, sweeping and jabbing through Haku's defense. Their foes sandals began to squeak on the floor, while his stability began to worsen under the scrutiny of the leaf-gennins offense. Haku was simply not prepared to move back at the pace Naruto and Sasuke were dictating him.

_They were barley fucking tiring _as well, especially compared to Haku, who was now forced to both defend against multiple forms taijutsu, think of a counter-strategy **and **keep the chakra flowing to his ice mirrors. Haku gritted his teeth, hands beginning to become sore from deflecting and hindering numerous punches and kicks. It wasn't until two boots kicked him from the back however, that he realized just how much the push back helped Naruto and Sasuke.

_**CRACK!**_

A pair of sandals _smashed_ into his back, pushing him back towards another Naruto and Sasuke beat-down. Though he managed to successfully block a majority of their attacks, their attempts at driving him back yet again succeeded and another kick to his back was delivered.

_**CRACK!**_

Catching a glimpse of the attacker through his exposed eye, Haku realized what was going on. The shadow clone perched on the nearest ice-mirror was pushing up from it and harshly booting him in the back of the head anytime he came close to the mirror. With the information gained (and a sore, boot-printed back of head), Haku launched forward yet again.

This time, his strikes were calculated in their ineffectiveness. Each one had an opening that he knew Sasuke and Naruto would exploit, each hit convincing them that they (like before) had him on the ropes. It was akin to a performance art the way the strikes registered on Haku. More experienced ninja may have been able to catch onto his trap but the two teens were too focused on winning to be perceptive.

Haku felt a similar rhythm lead him backwards, five steps from the scratch on the floor and the wind behind him began to scuttle.

_**CRACK?!**_

The clones kick once again connected, but its target was one of misconception as the powerful blow smashed through Naruto and Sasuke (the boys' forward momentum only making it hurt more). Haku, in the meanwhile, had rolled underneath the strike and, due to the uprooting of the clone's body in order to actually complete the attack, into the mirror.

His breath went from frigid and rough to cool and damp as the feeling of ice surrounded him. He'd dwell on it but there was little time to waste on irrelevant things like this, Haku thought. Quickly taking in one more breath, he blinked.

_Blink._

One half of the shadow clone covers was slaughtered, a barrage of needles giving way to one of smoke and grainy, residual chakra in the air.

_Blink. _

The other side of duplicates was ran through, faster than either Naruto or Sasuke even realized that Haku had settled back into the mirror. They soon find out though, as Haku once again took aim from the air.

_**Fwoosh!**_

He launched at the two with needles at the ready, using them more like daggers than their intended combat procedure. He moved so fast the other two were essentially locked in slow motion to him…that was until Sasukes eye snapped to the side, locking the Uchihas gaze with him. It wasn't much (Sasuke was still not fast enough to properly react to what he was looking at, instead leaping backwards) but Haku would be left questioning how the hell any part of him was able to move in that time.

Despite being slightly shaken by the outburst, it didn't stop Haku from delivering two, somewhat inaccurate slashes to the two boys, before quickly ducking into the safety of a nearby mirror. Blood began to trickle down Naruto's chin, the strike having been miscalculated for the neck. It barley phased him, all Narutos attention being placed on Sasuke, who fell to the ground clutching his eyes.

"Shit, Sasuke!" Naruto screamed, panic crawling at the edges of his tone. "_Shadow clone jutsu!"_

He was careful not to leave himself a sitting target for Haku, swiftly herding the shadow clone's around him and Sasuke in a dome formation. It was not only a human shield, but layers and layers of human shield, so many clones spilling out of the mirror maze that Haku became confused as to why Naruto had not collapsed from an over-abuse of chakra.

The blonde boy didn't even feel a thing though, except for maybe a sensation of dread as he slid over to Sasuke.

"Shit, Sasuke! Are you okay?!" Naruto's gut was racked with terror while Sasuke continued to wriggle around on the ground, hand covering his eyes with painful spasms running up it. The sound of chakra explosions outside hinted that they might not have too long before Haku had his next chance to strike (and right now they weren't even recovered from the last one)

"_**FUCK!**_" Sasuke replied. If Naruto hadn't been so concerned for his wellbeing, he may have started laughing at the way Sasuke said it. "I think he got my fucking eyes!"

Naruto's breath hitched for a second…before he saw, through Sasuke's rampant wriggling around, a cut running down his friend's cheek. His baby blues switched from deathly concerned to deathly confused in little under a second.

"…Hey, let me see." He said to Sasuke, voice significantly less anxious than it had been before. Sasuke, though in pain, complied, putting his shaky hand to the ground between bouts of intense blinking. Naruto blankly stared back at him, not being able to see the problem.

"Looks fine to me." He lazily said back, all tension draining from the situation (unjustly, as the screams of the shadow clones outside the barrier could attest). This statement earned a befuddled "gaze" (term used loosely due to the amount of blinking), with Sasuke himself quickly realizing that, no, his vision had not been lost. The blinking quickly subsided after this, though Sasuke's bafflement did not.

"…You're right. My eyes just… really hurt, I guess?"

"Maybe he kicked up some dust into it?"

Sasuke strongly doubted that this was the case, but for the sake of brevity, he agreed with a nod of his head. The sounds of dissolving smoke got even more apparent, drawing his attention away from his eyes and onto the battle field.

"How much time do we have left?" He asked, answer coming instantaneously with the blowing up of the shadow clone to his side. A sharp barrage of needles rained down upon them, Sasuke only narrowly able to crawl out of the path. It was a tense few seconds as the clones were forced to break formation to try and fight off Haku, Naruto and Sasuke crouching back to their feat in preparation. That tension was lost on the former boy, however, as he turned to Sasuke with a look that was more curious than anything else.

"How many times have we hit him now?"

Sasuke stared back.

"Probably around twenty."

Naruto flashed a thumbs up back.

* * *

Sakura was not scared. Cold maybe, but scared no.

Okay she was a little bit a scared.

_**You dumb fucking bitch! Why must you insist on playing the messiah every single opportunity-**_

Her thoughts were quickly drowned out by the harsh, chilling winds that only got stronger the further she climbed. Her fingertips were lightly frostbitten by this point, meaning each grip at the kunai was weaker and weaker. She'd embarked on scaling the ice dome around twenty minutes ago, and while she'd made decent progress, it was not easy.

First, she would have to carve out a spot in the back of the mirror with a kunai, and then use the increased elevation to grip onto the crevasse between the current and next mirror and then proceed to call upon upper-body strength she didn't think she had to pull herself upwards. Rinse and repeat, though it sounded a whole lot easier when the harsh winds, slippery gaps and blistered hands were not fully mentioned.

"The hell are you doing kid?!" Tazunas gruff voice bounced through the sky, taking Sakura's attention downwards with it. She looked at him, realized the situation and how bizarre she looked and attempted to play it off cool.

"…I'm going to save my friends." She said back, an undercurrent in her voice rippling with obvious false bravado. She wasn't fooling anyone, herself or Tazuna, the older man just starring back at her with a bewildered gaze.

"So you're gonna try and reach the top?"

"Yep." Sakura said back, clearly not interested in talking as much, maybe because she had to yell the top of her lounges just to become audible from her peak.

"…And then what?"

Sakura fully-switched off conversation-mode and began to resume her crawl upwards. With a surprising amount of determination, she whispered a reply that Tazuna couldn't even hear…

"I've got a plan."

She wasn't lying.


	10. Sparkling Checkmate

_Haku ravenously dug into the cooked bunny meat, his hunger overruling any prior qualms he had about killing the animal. It had been along time since he'd had a proper meal at all, let alone one that wasn't composed primarily of cheap rations of sludge. _

"_Slow down. You're eating too much too quickly; you'll give yourself indigestion." Zabuza's barked from the other side of the fire. Their bedrolls had been set up parallel to each other, the blazing flames being used as a dividing line. In contrast to Haku, Zabuza was merely nibbling on his skewer of meat (though it was still hot, which was yet another reason why the boy shouldn't have been scarfing it down). _

"_Right. Sorry." Haku replied, embarrassingly lowering the wood skewer from his mouth. The forest clearing the two had set up camp in was tiny, Haku reckoned it was no more than four by four meters with the most generous estimate. It was quiet, the only sounds that were at all apparent were the blistering of the fire and the occasional chirping of crickets. _

_After a brief moment of conversational silence, Haku's pale eyes shot back up to meet Zabuza's. _

"_Where are we gonna go now Zabuza-sensei?" He asked. _

_Zabuza ripped a chunk of meat from his skewer, eating it before looking back at Haku. _

"_If we're gonna make money, we need to head to Suna. Laws are lax under Rasa, so it's a goldmine for bounties. They went almost fully isolationist after the third's death, as long as we hover around the outskirts, there's not much chance of any mist or leaf nin coming after us." Haku nodded along with most of this, but briefly took the time to ask a question about Zabuza's last statement. _

"_But I thought the leaf hated the mist, why would they care about us?" He asked, tone questioning but soft, only growing softer at the uncharacteristic laugh that followed from his sensei. _

"_Please, kid. Any problem is Konohas problem, they're the fucking world police. Who do you think stirred up the riots?" He responded, chucking his now-empty skewer into the fire. _

_Haku said nothing in reply, simply staying silent at the mention of the event. Zabuza showed little concern. _

"_...Anyway, speaking of the leaf, we're gonna need to run along the Konoha border to reach Suna. The waves dead territory as of right now, so we can get through their without issues." He picked up a stick and began to draw out a map of their path, snapping Haku out from his daze. "I'm not completely sure about every area around the border, but if we're traveling well, we'll reach the sound in a few months." _

_At the mention of this villi age, Zabuza's demeanor turned low and serious. _

"_We're lucky it's tiny, but we might end up doing a job or two for the guy who's in charge of it if we're gonna get through it unscathed." _

_Haku nodded, quickly following up with a question that he asked just to show Zabuza he was paying attention. _

"_So, sensei, what do we do after we leave Suna?"_

_Zabuza looked at him like he was the biggest idiot in the world. _

"_It's a bit early for that. Just the trip from where we are now to Suna will take four months minimum, I wouldn't even be surprised if it took half a year. If you factor in the time we'll spend in Suna, the entire trip will be nearly a year and a half." There was something heavy in his words, Haku only now truly grasping the commitment of the position he'd been put in. Normal people would find this disconcerting, but Haku felt his stomach well up with an unknown feeling of something that resembled exhilaration. He'd never had a thought much about the future…about goals…_

"_A lot of what comes next is reliant on variables that are impossible to plan for." Zabuza continued with his plan. "Maybe we'll end up hitting the Stone if Suna runs dry and we don't have enough cash. Either way we'll try and make it back to Kirigakure, or at least the wave, if we have enough funds to mobilize some of the smaller villages." _

"_How long will that take?" Haku asked, having a more vested interest in the question then Zabuza could discern. _

"_How old are you?" He responded. _

"_Thirteen this year."_

"_If you're lucky, you'll be turning seventeen by the time we're back at water country." _

_Zabuza abruptly lay down against his bedroll, shuffling his back to Haku. _

"_Now go to bed kid, it'll be a long day of walking tomorrow, can't have you getting sloppy on me." _

_Haku obliged, similarly flopping down on his bed roll before extending his hand upwards towards some of the overhanging trees. Frost ran up it, though he didn't need to project any ice with the moisture in the trees. A few hand seals later, and a medium-sized, layered ball of ice was stuck to the tree-top. It was a tactic Zabuza had invented only a few days after he took him in. The ice ball would progressively melt through its layers over the course of the night, meaning Haku and Zabuza both got to rest easy with the heat of the fire without any risk of the flames getting out of control. _

_Haku quickly flipped over to his side, letting the heat gently wash over his back while the forests night air brushed against his face. His demeanor was significantly more positive than what you'd expect of a person who'd just been told that he was going to be a wanted criminal for the next three years. Maybe because when he'd been on the street, he hadn't even known if he was going to be alive the next week. It was cold on the street, here…it was warm. _

_The fire crackled. _

* * *

"Ah, s-shit…" Sakura breathed out, wanting to scream but not having the energy too. Her fingers were numb from the ice, grip slipping as she scaled her way up the dome. The wind, the numbness, the fear, it was incredibly overwhelming and made her wish she had two feet on the ground instead of hanging in the air.

_**Ruuuuuumble!**_

Out of nowhere, the mirror began to shake. It was not just hers that did so, it was every one of the mirrors in the formation.

"What the…" She didn't have a chance to complete her question as the mirrors suddenly rotated to the side much like a carousel. However, carousels where usually moderated so that their speed was tolerable for the children riding it. Sakura had no such luck. The mirrors spun and spun in the dome formation, each rotation making the kunoichi more and more dizzy. Her grip was barley existent when she wasn't almost being thrown off, so any control she had of her balance went out the window.

_**Okay, time to go, drop, drop, FUCKING DROP! **_Inner-Sakura's booming voice was made all the less pleasant by the nausea Sakura had begun to experience. Despite this, she attempted to heed the advice, looking downwards at the ground (which was a surprisingly difficult task in the situation she was in.) What she was met with was the realization of just how high up she really was. A drop from there would have Sakura ending up as a red stain on the pavement. She could maybe climb down? No, she was too dizzy to properly navigate without direct eyesight on the points she could climb. All she could do was wait for Hakus apparent theme park ride to subside before trying to make it to the top with one last blast of energy.

_Keep holding_

This was the one thought that her brain was clear enough to consistently compute, the girl latching onto the mirror like a mosquito with a source of blood. It felt like it took an hour for the mirrors to stop moving, though Sakura would later realize it couldn't have been more than five seconds. Either way, as soon as their motion stopped, Sakura's dizzy hand burst upwards. She climbed faster in the next twenty seconds then she had all day, loose grip and biting nausea be damned. She burrowed uphill, pushing herself up from mirror after mirror until finally, her positioning became horizontal instead of vertical.

She scampered herself to the center of the mirrors, in case Haku decided to hula-hoop the ice again. This small burst of victory was quickly followed by a collapse, Sakura falling cheek down against the chilled smoothness of the ice. Anything under her ribcage felt like it was completely numb, anything over felt like it just wasn't there. She emitted several ragged, pained breaths, the events of the past minute feeling more like a dream than anything she'd actually accomplished. It took her a long amount of time to recompose herself, only sitting up when the last of the jitters began to fade from her fingers.

Her head ached like hell, but she couldn't let that stop her. She withdrew an explosive tag, tearing off the sealed detonation mechanism so that it was no more than a piece of paper. This was for the better, she needed Haku to think that it was a real explosive, giving her the chance to give it to Sasuke unobstructed. During her final year at the academy, she'd read up on tag writing, at least enough that she could program a few complex processes.

Her hand shot to her pockets, reaching for a brush…

_**You're an idiot. **_

There was no brush. She had nothing to write with. This may be a problem, when the crux of her entire strategy was _**WRITING SOMETHING**_ _**ON THE TAGS. **_Sakura felt inner-Sakuras echoing cries of disparagement wilt down to her stomach. She couldn't climb back down to get a substitute, there was no way she'd make it back up in the state she was in. She needed an ink alternative she could use from here.

At first, the residual ice water on her fingers felt like a decent idea. It was available in ready supply and all she'd need to do was trace her fingers over the paper to dampen it into the shape of words. This idea was figuratively good on paper, but not actually good on paper, Sakura underestimating just how thick the tags material was. She was doubtful the tags inner-workings would even recognize the code she wrote down, not to mention the fact that Naruto or Sasuke would have no chance of recognizing what she was trying to communicate.

The next idea was mentally shot down as quick as it came. Unsheathing her kunai, she'd briefly planned to just cut into the tag, making incisions in the paper that were shaped like words. She quickly understood that this was a fucking stupid idea, and she'd wreck the paper's chakra systems. With that one snuffed, she was all out of options.

_**See, there it is, you're so fucking useless, just like he said. Based your whole big plan on a pen YOU DIDN'T HAVE. **_

Sakura racked her brain in an attempt to shut out her inner-thoughts. What would Sasuke do? Probably look super cute and shoot fireballs everywhere. Okay, bad example. What would _Naruto _do? Once again, bad example, he'd scream and then cut himself open…._ wait…_

_**The fuck are you doing?**_

Sakura retrieved a kunai from her pouch, jagging the edge upwards before making a small cut along her index finger. It stung immediately, but she fought through it. Her finger ran up the cut, collecting blood as an improvised ink. She wrote a long string of "X"'s over the top of the tag, signaling that this was not sealing commands but just text. Almost immediately, her "supply of ink" began to run thin.

"Damn it." She hissed, dragging her thumb over the cut to extend it's a bit more. Blood further trickled down, Sakura having to write quickly to ensure the blood didn't run out yet also had to make sure her sealing was correctly written to make sure that it would behave the way she wanted when she dropped it to Sasuke. She scrawled through the note, managing to write out the simple specifics of her plan, before realizing the cut on her finger wasn't as shallow as she'd thought.

Thinking quickly, she ripped off a piece of her shuriken holster and wrapped it around the finger like a bandage. The paper material became stained with red but Sakura's mind lay far away from the injury now that it was bandaged. She was more focused on trying to deliver the note to Sasuke, needing to drop it at the perfect angle to make sure he saw the text before he had the chance to run away. In accordance with this, she lay down flat on her stomach, attempting to peek through the cracks of the ice dome.

There, she saw Sasuke standing, kunai at the ready…wait, what was up with his eyes?

* * *

Haku began to breath heavily through his mask. Not only was he puffed, he was infuriated. Chakra drain had begun to fully set in, meaning his whole body was going numb. At most, he had fifteen minutes before the ice mirrors became unsustainable, and then either his body or their stability had to give. He was damn sure fifteen minutes wasn't enough to kill either of the genin that stood against him.

Naruto (he'd heard the other boy call out his real name) must've had tremendous chakra reserves as he was currently was putting into action the unbeatable strategy of "spawn a million shadow clones so you can't hit me". Haku counted six presently occupying the space, and that number would balloon up to twelve the second one was cut down. Unless the blonde was adept at hiding his fatigue, his clone-making abilities would stay strong long after Hakus formation broke.

Even if it didn't, any of the boy's sloppiness was covered up by the Uchiha. Any opening Naruto gave him in his fighting style, Sasuke would block. Haku had quickly switched strategies and decided that he needed to kill Sasuke first, but that was easier said than done, because of Naruto's never-ending army of clones constantly rendering his attacks useless. There was no way to reach them, unless he tried _that…_

Haku had heard about a technology from Kum, called a zoetrope. It's actually use was of little interest to him, but the way it moved and manipulated light certainly was. He'd attempted to implement the zoetrope formation into his jutsu, but quickly found it almost completely dried up his chakra as well as being more than a little disorientating and inconsistent. He didn't doubt it would be enough to kill Sasuke, but quickly realized that he did not have nearly enough chakra to go utilize the techniques maximum potential.

"Come out or I'll break down every single one of your shitty mirrors!" Narutos voice echoed through the dome, threat being so empty Haku took no notice of it. Instead, he was more focused on Sasuke and how he could deploy the technique without dying directly after.

_A genjutsu right after would be enough to kill him, but that means…_

Haku briefly cracked the numbers of chakra consumption in his head. He couldn't keep the zoetrope going for more than a minute, which meant its effects would be nulled. If he could just get Naruto out of the way, it was possible he could trap Sasuke in a low-level, yet lethal genjutsu. His brow was invisible to the genin, but it furrowed from all the same. This was not a good plan, there was only a slim sliver of a safety-net if he were to fail. The ice mirrors wouldn't hold for long after a ninjutsu and genjutsu, if at all. It'd take him everything just to keep them up, which would be a necessity if he were to effectively fight Naruto.

The boy may have been a genin with slovenly fighting skills, but Haku with no ice-mirrors, no chakra and a lot of pain would not be able to successfully endure a shadow clone assault. The time to strike was now, every second wasted meant one less second he'd have of the ice mirrors.

"_Final Formation:" _Haku growled, the two genin jumping at the sight of him actually beginning to move. "_Mirrored Zoetrope!" _

The mirrors began to spin in their sideways arrangement at astonishing speeds. Haku swore he heard a bump on the side of one of the mirrors, but wrote it off as the wind. The metal of the needles creaked in his hands as he braced to launch from them.

"What the fuck?!" Naruto screamed, as the light inside the dome began to dim slightly. Shadows became prevalent, and the mirrors blurred. Haku's position was masked by streaks of light that would intentionally be let into the dome, cracking through the spinning mirrors.

"Stay calm." Sasuke said back, voice so cold and stable that anyone could tell his heart was actually racing in his chest. The boy's black eyes darted around, looking for any sign of Haku's next attack, but attempting to spot anything in the spinning room of mirrors would only earn you an eventual headache.

"Hey, what if-_**Aah!**_" Naruto was quickly cut off as he saw Haku emerging from his side. The outlines of his figure were ragged and transparent, giving him an ethereal look that freaked Naruto out enough to prompt him to throw a punch. The problem was, Naruto's hand connected with nothing but air. Haku was never there. In fact, he'd really jumped from the other side of the formation, slashing through the shadow clones effortlessly, before setting his sights on the now out of position original.

"_Fire style: Fireball jutsu!" _Sasuke yelled, unleashing (literal) cover fire for the Uzumaki.

_Perfect_. Haku thought, not attempting to take Naruto's life in any way. Instead, he kicked him in the side of the head, sending him to the ground and used the momentum from that to fling himself towards the fire-ball. Sasuke had no idea where he went after he became obscured, all he saw his jutsu halt its motion completely while It's roaring flames were shattered, visually splitting into diamond shaped crests of fire with Haku nowhere to be seen.

If his glance was longer spent at the sight, he was sure he'd go mad trying to figure out what he was looking at. Instead, he turned sharply on the heel, trying to find Haku's whereabouts.

_**FWOOSH!**_

The color black obscured his view completely and when his eyesight came back, that was all he saw. Black. His sight wasn't at all obscured, he was sure of that as he could see his arms and legs just fine, the interior of the area was just…black. Dark black, _pitch _black, the type of black that was so dark he couldn't tell if it's walls were literally right next to his nose or stretched on for infinity.

_**Tap.**_

He looked sideways. Haku was walking slowly through the distance, each step vibrating through the ground with barley illuminated ripples. Panic clung to his chest and he tried to jump backwards to make space, only for his foot to seize up against something cold. Almost immediately, he saw the ice crawling up his leg, sticking him in place.

_**Tap.**_

With a growl, he fetched a kunai from his pouch in order to try and chip away at it, only for the tool to morph into an identical ice sculpture which promptly cracked into small chunks in his hand.

_What?!_

_**Tap.**_

Haku was significantly closer now, the shine of his needles breaking through the dark lighting. His walk was pedantic but sinister, Sasuke's fear only increasing as he watched the other ninja menacingly stride over to him. The ice crawled up to his stomach.

_**Tap.**_

It moved through to his chest, sending scorching patches of frost tingling down Sasuke's skin. Haku was four or five steps away now.

"_Aah, aah..mmm_." His cries of struggle were muted, as the ice crawled up his mouth and shoulders. Any motion from anything other than his eyes became non-existent in the face of Haku's ominous tread. He couldn't move.

_He couldn't move._

_**Tap.**_

The finally frost began to cover his face. His eyes felt like they were on fire, but he was incapable of doing anything to elevate the pain. The sight of Haku began to leave them in favor of the ice that was now running over them. He desperately squinted upward, trying in vain to get some image of where Haku was. Light cracked around his line of sight, blurring and submerging the image through Sasuke's eyes.

The last thing he saw before the ice fully ran over him was a looming figure, obscured by shadow and winter. He heard the footsteps. He smelt blood. He couldn't move.

_Itachi…_

Red-tinged rage began to swirl around his eyes.

_**CRACK!**_

The ice completely shattered from Sasuke's body, along with the entirety of the black void surrounding him. It split like someone had thrown a sledgehammer through a window. Haku, who had been mid-swing at this point, felt his eye widen as he stared back at Sasuke's gleaming red pupils.

_Those eyes…their the same as his sense's one._

Haku didn't have a chance to finish up his thought, before Sasukes leg crashed into his stomach, quickly followed up by a second kick to the jaw. The needles between his fingers came spilling onto the ground along with his body, his face-planting into the ground and further shattering the mask around his eye. While his body ached like hell, the sound of a gust of wind to the side of his head told Haku to retreat back to the mirrors.

This turned out to be a good decision, Haku barley making it out of the way of a kunai aimed at his head. The blade was thrown hard enough to embed its tip into the foundation of the bridge though Sasuke had barley intended to throw it in the first place. He was more focused on what the hell he'd just done to break through the genjutsu.

His fingertips grazed over the under-area of his eyes, picking up a trickle of blood. This, in combination with the fact that things were moving a lot slower made it obvious what had happened.

_I unlocked the sharingan?!_

"Woah! Sasuke, you've got two of the Kakashi-sensei eye!" Naruto exclaimed, confirming the hypothesis. Any satisfaction or joy he got from achieving the sacred Uchiha dojustu, though, was quickly dashed in favor of annoyance. Before he could even turn his head towards Naruto, the boy was right near his face, pinching his eye open even wider than it was.

"Hey! Get off!" Sasuke slapped his friends' hand away, turning back to him with a glare that did nothing to faze Naruto. Instead, he just laughed, grinning ear-to-ear.

"Those eyes are fucking weird dude. You look like an alien."

Sasuke was glad to see that Naruto found one of the greatest achievements that an Uchiha could accomplish funny but before he could respond the wind fluttered behind him and as a clearly fatigued Haku took advantage of the distraction. Sasuke's side was facing Haku, meaning he had to sidestep to avoid the attack.

_**FWOOSH!**_

As the needles sliced through nothing but air, he worse he heard Haku mutter a curse from under his breath.

Naruto quickly played defense, leaping at Haku with an attempt to kick the hand open and cause the mist ninja to drop his weapons. This was expected from both of them and Haku pushed his hand backwards in accordance. The attack itself had probably been a bad idea, stemming from the fact that Haku could barley hold the ice mirrors up now, let alone fight both Naruto and a sharingan-wielding Sasuke. Speaking of which, the Uchiha's foot shot out in a harsh side kick, cracking through Haku's leg and taking him off balance.

The sharingan wasn't a game changer for him but god be damned if he didn't have a far better degree of control now. It's single tomoe glinted as Sasuke unleashed three quick kicks in succession, each one punishing Haku further.

_**SMASH!**_

_**SMASH!**_

_**SMAS-**_

The third kick was deployed on an empty patch of space, Haku pushing all his momentum backwards to avoid it and then forwards again. Needles in hand, he launched at Sasuke, who was still mid-kick.

"_**Aah!**_" The Uchiha boy cried out, as the senbon barley sunk into his side. If Haku hadn't been so fatigued, he would've killed Sasuke right there. As it was now, he wasn't nearly accurate enough to inflict anything more than flesh wound with his needles. Naruto rushed past his friend, attempting retaliation but his barrage of punches and kicks were blocked, albeit sloppily.

In the meanwhile, Sasuke crouched back down, regaining his breath. His sharingan gazed over Haku, tracking his movements. He looked disorientated. At the start of the fight, Naruto wouldn't even be able to throw a punch at him without being blocked and then beaten into the ground. Right now, Naruto was throwing wild haymakers and Haku was struggling to even keep up his defense. Suddenly, a loud clink was heard above him, gaining the attention of everyone in the dome. From the blurred sections of light, a kunai with an explosive tag attached to it fell down, aimed directly at Sasuke. Small bits of flame jumped from its length, snapping and sparkling through the frosty air.

Naruto was, surprisingly, the first to react, jumping backwards with his hands clasped on his head and a loud cry of "_OH SHIT!_" As a result, Haku was able to limp back to the mirrors, proceeding to phase into one and resume his reflection defense. Sasuke just stayed, sharingan allowing him to read the obvious, giant red text that was scrawled onto the note.

"_**IT WILL NOT EXPLODE!**_"

It was Sakura's handwriting.

* * *

The steel of Zabuza's sword ran along the ground, uprooting sparks with its sharpness. He was not dragging it for any kind of menacing effect, instead his arms were just too tired to properly hoist the massive blade. Even with this disadvantage, he held an edge over Kakashi, who wasn't even properly on his feet yet. More so, his focus seemed to be put more on the tiny cut on his finger than the foe in front of him.

_It's not deep enough. _

Only when Zabuza got into striking distance, did Kakashi look up, just in time to see the hulking seversword descending upon him.

_**BASH!**_

The blade collided with the ground, Kakashi only just managing to pivot to the side. Before Zabuza could respond, Kakashi's foot sweeped his balance out from under him, sending him tumbling to the concrete while Kakashi cartwheeled backwards to a safer distance. Not to be sidelined, Zabuza popped back up immediately, only to see Kakashi's sharingan beginning to spin in his socket.

"_Fire release…_" The voice was inflected, burrowing with a youthful modulation that was far from Kakashi's own. "_Hyper flaming flare spiral of heat death!"_

Zabuza immediately brought the sword upwards to his face like a shield. The jutsus name was ridiculous, but he wasn't going to fuck around while Kakashi dropped a planet on him or something. His beady eyes peered through the sides of the defense, watching as Kakashi sucked in the air to create an even more powerful fire jutsu.

He breathed in, face heating up and then unleashed it…

At least that's what was supposed to happen. In reality, Kakashi took too long to release the jutsu and ended up exploding into a coughing fit, every rasp letting loose another bit of smoke from his mouth. At first, Zabuza was pleased, but quickly realized that this had only worked to Kakashis advantage. The thick, black smog spread forwards at a quick rate that was obviously deliberate, masking any trace of Kakashi's next move.

Zabuza immediately started to back away, ears more on-guard than his eyes as he tried to decipher any sound coming from the fog. A few seconds later, the sharp, recognizable voice of the clone jutsu rung out towards him, easing his guard a little. In all of Kakashi's cleverness, he'd forget to mask the dead ringer that would clench Zabuzas victory.

This was why, when Kakashi burst out of the smog, running directly toward Zabuza, the demon of the mist did nothing in retaliation. The short summoning time indicated by the previous sound meant this couldn't have been a shadow clone if Kakashi even knew that jutsu. No, this was a regular clone and would phase through Zabuza as such. Then Zabuza saw the smoke trails giving way to Kakashi's visible shadow. A shadow that a regular clone wouldn't have.

_**Crack!**_

The real Kakashi's elbow collided hard with his ribs, uprooting a guttural cry of pain. The copy ninja quickly swiveled away from him, cartwheeling backwards to create distance. Before Zabuza had even fully figured out how Kakashi had outsmarted him, an actual clone emerged, jumping straight upwards from the looming smog. His vision was blurry due to pain, at least a few ribs having been broken, but even through the distortion, he could make out the shinings of a freshly-brandished kunai knife.

The clone chucked it through the air like a bullet, Zabuza only _just _managing to pivot his shoulder back far enough to dodge. The sound of flesh being cut distinctively echoed through the wind, prominent enough that Zabuza thought for a brief moment that he'd been cut. No, he swiveled around to find the source of the injury and there stood Kakashi, finger extended as blood ran down it.

Unease began to run down Zabuza's back. Kakashi was a fair bit away from Zabuza, so the knife would've been losing momentum and he had that eye. Unless he'd had a stroke, there was no way Kakashi hadn't cut himself intentionally. The meaning of this intentionality became clear pretty quickly, as Kakashi jutted his finger out to the back of him, before beginning to circle it around himself.

Zabuza's eyes widened, as the copious trail of blood running from his finger began to transform from red to black, morphing into ink. Kakashi's hand movements quickly moved from a simple semi-circle into rapid, speedy character writing through the air.

_A summoning jutsu?!_

Before he could adequately prepare for anything, Kakashi shot his hand down to the ground, ink spiraling around him. Smoke seeped over him, a pack of dogs quickly apparating through the fog. They looked wild, and _very hungry_, teeth repeatedly clenching and slobber falling from their lips. Zabuza would be disgusted if he wasn't petrified.

The muts began to charge forward, claws of their paws grazing against the ground. Alongside them were several bumps in the pavement, which Zabuza assumed were dogs burrowing through the ground. Even if they weren't, they were still heading straight for him so their true nature didn't matter in the slightest. As the fastest dog approached, Zabuza immediately attempted to sever its head. It was an ugly fucking thing too, so it wasn't like his heart would hurt, however what actually ended up hurting was his leg.

Through the ground, the face of a dog exploded upwards, gripping onto his leg with its teeth. Before he could attempt to kick it off, the same happened to his left one as well. That left him with the option to go for its head with the sword, only for that to be halted as well. The very dog he'd been about to decapitate beforehand had leapt upwards and bitten onto his arm, causing a streak of blood to rush downwards.

In a battle, there was always a point, just before the winning strike, were the loser accepted defeat. For Zabuza, having several pairs of extra sharp dog teeth sinking into his body in an attempt to keep him in place should have really been that moment. Despite his predicament, he continued to struggle, every moment only sinking the canines bite further into him.

The ever-increasing pain was not what ended up fanning the flames of Zabuza's anger, though. That would've been the positively victorious look that ran through Kakashi's eyes, dojutsu enhanced or otherwise. What was worse was the fact he couldn't refute it. His sword had been discarded after another dog bit onto his arm, hand seals were obviously not an option and Kakashi was too far away for him to pull of anything even resembling the headbutt trick he had last time.

No words were exchanged in the proceeding moments. Zabuza stared at Kakashi with a gaze easily identified as one of hatred, and Kakashi stared back with a look Zabuza couldn't discern. That is until, Kakashi clutched his hand, letting loose sparks of lightning from the palm. Then Zabuza could place it. It was killing intent.

He was going to die.


	11. Resting Silent Rainfall-

Sasuke braced on his knee, wiping a hand across the underside of his eyes to get rid of the residual blood that came from activating the sharingan. His other hand held Sakura's explosive tag kunai (which ended up not exploding, so it was really just a tag kunai). He'd read over it, and from what he could skim through keeping an eye on Haku's potential positioning, Sakura's thesis was sound. She'd confirmed Haku's clones to not be clones at all, merely reflections that were projected into the different mirrors, which meant there was only one real Haku. He'd suspected as much, but due to Haku's speed while moving between them, he couldn't have been sure until now.

Sakura's plan was laid out pretty simply:

1- Sakura would lay cluster wire over the seemingly invisible cracks in the dome. Cluster wire is highly reflective and conductive to any sort of light.

2- Naruto and Sasuke would bait Haku out of the mirrors, specifically tracking him over to the north quadrant of the dome.

3- Sasuke shots a fireball up at the ceiling, hitting the wire, which in turn sends light reflecting all over the dome, breaking up Haku's illusion.

4- Sakura will have created crevasses in the wire formation that lead Haku to the middle mirror on the east side of the dome as it will be the only mirror he can easily access.

5- (The most luck-reliant step) Naruto would jump upwards to intercept Haku and take him out of the air.

The real hardest part about this plan was actually conveying the information to Naruto, who was sat at the other side of the dome. Sasuke obviously couldn't audibly give him the plan, as even a whisper would be made readily apparent to Haku thanks to the echo. He couldn't simply pass him the note either. Sakura had obviously written it in her blood, for a reason Sasuke couldn't discern, and while her handwriting was good considering that fact, it was barley legible otherwise. Sasuke had once observed Naruto half-struggling to read a travel brochure, so he doubted the Uzumaki boy would be able to understand the tag's writing.

Unfortunately, this was kind of a brick wall. He couldn't verbalize the plan, nor could he just show it to Naruto, so the strategy had been killed before it could even begin.

_If there was only some way I could non-verbally run through the steps to him_…

Sasuke thought hard to think up what would could only be described as a plan to explain a plan, but while he was attempting to think forwards, he really should've been thinking back as the answer to the conundrum lay specifically in two of his memories. The remembrance of these two occurrences had sprung from Sasuke thinking of times Naruto had non-verbally interacted with him, the only things he could come up with being the day of the squad selection and when Kakashi had nearly taken off his mask…

Sasuke's hand sprung upwards, finger clicking together to try and attract Naruto's attention. This succeeded, Naruto at first spinning around thinking that the clicking was that of a bomb only to immediately calm down as he saw Sasukes hand. The Uchiha motioned to the note before beginning to translate what he'd read through his own fucked up version of sign.

It was clunky, Sasuke quickly descending into full theatrics when forced to try and describe things like shadow clones (he would straighten both his hands sideways so Naruto could only see one, before unfurling the other outwards to symbolize the apparition of a clone), but it, at least according to what Naruto signed back, was effective. Now what they need to do was bait Haku, which Sasuke suspected would be a little harder than Sakura had expected when she put the plan together. Haku was running low on chakra, that much was obvious from his previous scuffle with Naruto, so, assuming he operated on even an average level of battle intelligence, he was not going to come out of that mirror unless he sensed a certain kill.

"Aahh, you better come out now." Sasukes eyes redirected onto Naruto, who had made the decision to stand up and kick one of Haku's mirrors in what was the most obvious bait Sasuke had ever seen. "You should come out, because I **don't **have any idea where you are, so I can't fight you unless you come out."

It was made abundantly clear that Naruto had the acting ability of a brick, maybe worse because at least a brick was silent. For some reason unknown to the Uchiha, when Naruto spoke, the act of, well, acting, caused his words to sound less like his own and more that of an alien parasite possessing his body and attempting to replicate the human language. This dialectal butchery was matchingly paired with some of the worst kicks Sasuke had ever seen. If Naruto had been half-heartedly slamming his foot into the mirrors, it would've been better, but as of right now, the blonde had successfully maneuvered himself into a grey area of "trying too hard" and "not trying hard enough"

To his credit, Naruto had actually trekked over to the north of the dome, meaning if Haku did take the bait, the plan would be able to be effectively executed. Sasuke continued to watch on, half in awe, have in annoyance, as Naruto stumbled around. Another kick bashed against the mirror, a lot more force put behind it than the ones previous. Too much force. Naruto briefly lost his balance on the attack, meaning he had to try and use the mirror for leverage if he didn't want to faceplant. This maneuver only really worked when it was done on something with a solid foundation. A levitating block of wet ice was the exact opposite of this, and as a result, Naruto lost any grip he had on the ground and began to fall backwards.

"_Oh shit!_" He exclaimed, quickly losing the privilege of stability as he slipped under himself. Sasuke would've found it funny, if the wicked glint in Haku's eye wasn't there. Before he could leap to action, Haku had left the mirror, charging downward at Naruto with blistering speed only visible to the sharingan. Despite being able to perceive Haku's movements, Sasuke knew he had no chance of out speeding him, red eyes desperately bouncing around his head in search of something that could help him. Then he saw it…

Naruto's hand was pointing upwards to the ceiling, thumb and forefinger flicking open like a fireball jutsu. It left no doubt in Sasuke's mind that Naruto had intentionally slipped.

_Maybe he's not such an idiot…_

"_**FIRE RELEASE: GRAND FIREBALL JUTSU!"**_

Sparks began to fall from Sasuke's lips, taking Haku's attention off Naruto. The mist nin initially braced in the air, fully expecting to have to pivot away from Sasuke's fireball, only to be surprised as the Uchiha boy nudged his head up. The ball of flame was unleashed, hitting the top of the ice dome before just as quickly simmering out much like a wave hitting the shore. A sigh of relief should've been what fell from the now-grounded Haku's lips, but he was more focused on what the fireballs use was, a question that was swiftly answered when he gazed over the mirrors.

Large slashes of light radiated from the top of the dome, projecting onto the mirrors in thin, but visible slices. Haku realized immediately what they were doing. There were very few mirrors unaffected by the lightshow, the origin of which was a mystery to him. Taking refuge in any of the nearby mirrors would leave his location completely exposed as soon as Naruto and Sasuke caught onto the true nature of the reflections (considering their apparent strategy involved messing with the lighting, he suspected they already knew). Once they saw the light brush over him and not expose a reflection, they would be able to easily target him.

He quickly spotted a mirror on the east of the dome, the only one that apparently was unchanged by the swaying lights. It wouldn't supply him any long-lasting refuge (they'd be able to discover him via process of elimination shortly enough) but it would give him enough of a vantage point that he could probably kill one of them. He'd have to move quickly to get there, quickly enough so that Sasuke and Naruto couldn't tell what mirror he was in before he got to safety. Speaking of the latter, Haku quickly came to the realization that Naruto wasn't where he'd been dropped.

" _**SHADOW CLONE JUTSU!**_"

Haku barely turned around in time to catch a swift kick descending upon him. Instead of hitting his mask like intended, Naruto's foot only connected with Haku's wrist. It wasn't just one attack Haku need to block though, two shadow clones flanking Naruto at his sides. One leapt to the side, cocking his arm backwards in preparation for a punch, while the other jumped to the closest mirror, bouncing off it with no regard for combat strategy outside of "hurt Haku in some way."

Their lackluster formation made it easy for Haku to counter, sending the real Naruto backwards with a kick before lazily dodging out of the way of the clone, who's respective momentum both caused them to switch positioning (one moving to the left, the other to the right.) They both attempted to try and continue pressing Haku, but a quick flick of the boy's wrist let forth two needles into his hands, with which he disposed of them with quick slashes to their eyes. Shadow clones weren't as strong as the original they were based off. Depending on the chakra pumped into them, they hit almost as hard, but unlike the regular illusory clones, that same chakra would also slow them down quite a bit. Haku knew this, but he also knew that he was completely toast if Naruto sent even a few more out.

Chakra fatigue had started to fully set in. Any remaining chakra he did have was being pumped in to the mirrors, a task that proved futile considering how absolutely shot his control was. He wouldn't have been surprised if over half the chakra he was putting into the mirrors was going to waste. More importantly, his left arm was almost completely numb, meaning Haku had had to begin eyeballing the angle of his needles to preserve accuracy.

"_**Arrrh!**_"

A guttural cry rang out as Naruto once again began to charge him only for a barrage of needles being thrown back in response. Every single one of them hit the ground, implanting themselves into the concrete, much to Haku's displeasure. Sure, their spiked tips managed to temporarily deter the Uzumaki from full on charging at him, but he'd intended for them to hit Naruto full on. Instead of piercing his lungs, they just sat on the ground like a glorified floor ornament. Still it was enough to stall Naruto and give Haku time to merge back with the ice, the rouge nin temporarily getting some relief as his body was cooled by the soft, forming frost.

He only had a few seconds before his mind overpowered the euphoric "cold bath in summer" sensation, and he began to leap from mirror to mirror, preparing a fresh set of needles in his hand. Mirror hopping was usually second nature to Haku, and while it was currently by no means hard, he definitely had to expend a little bit more effort to get from one to the other in the state he was in. Luckily, that didn't seem to be a problem as the Uchiha boy was completely out of position for even a fireball jutsu. Haku would've inwardly-smirked if he'd not caught Naruto making a beeline to the east along with him.

The plan was made apparent almost immediately. Naruto would barely be able to see him if he had a magnifying glass that moved everything under its lens in slow motion, so he definitely couldn't perfectly read his pattern while fucking sprinting with his eyes locked shut from exhaustion. It was no matter, Haku's right (and non-numb arm) beginning to go rigid with the senbon between his fingers. As soon as Naruto entered his path, he'd strike him down with a slash from the needles. He wasn't the only one queued into his plan, however. The sharp shine of the senbon was easily picked up by Sasuke's sharingan. Haku was obviously unaware that the eye actually functioned similarly to a magnifying glass that moved everything under its lens in slow motion. Maybe that was an overstatement, Sasuke was still not at all confident he could properly react to an attack from Haku, but his mirror hopping had become more and more visible as the fight wore on.

_He's prepping those needles _

Sasuke's eyes glossed over Haku and then the currently bolting Naruto, not taking long to put two and two together. If Naruto tried to intercept Haku, he was dead in the water.

"Naruto!" Sasuke shouted, actually having to open his mouth to try and get the blondes attention. Naruto's eyes shot open, looking back at Sasuke, who didn't choose to utter a word, instead holding up a closed fist before drawing lines upward from it with his fingers. The intention of the hand formation was clear only to the two genin, and incomprehensible to anyone else, though incomprehensible implied they could see it in the first place. Naruto quickly retrieved and dropped a smoke bomb onto the ground, masking both Sasuke and him in a thick haze.

He'd thought about using it earlier, but even despite his own dimness, he'd realized he and Sasuke both wouldn't be able to see anything so it would be useless. Now, on the other-hand, was the perfect opportunity to use it, the smoke completely masking any view Haku had of the teens. A small feeling of dread began to crawl up Haku, as Naruto's location suddenly became an unknown variable. Haku was not even a meter away from the mirror, he was so close he could practically feel the ices chiseled frost washing over him but now the genins disappearance had washed away any sense of premature victory. He could pop up anywhere, behind or under him, with any number of possible strategies to neutralize the advantage of the mi-

"HEY JACKASS!" Naruto's voice boomed as he emerged from the smokescreen, winding up _**directly in front of Haku. **_If the mist ninja had been a slightly more emotional person, he would've burst out laughing. All the tactics in the world, and this idiot decided to employ what had to be the most basic interception known to man. His arm was outstretched like a punch, with no regard for the fact that he'd have to wind it back again to actually have a chance of hurting Haku. Even if Haku had a stroke and randomly rammed headfirst into his fist, Naruto would still die because he was high up and had no way of softening the drop. This all made the glint of victory in Haku's eye that much brighter, the boy taking his fistful of needles and jamming them forwards at Naruto.

There was no shakiness, no wasted accuracy. The senbon pierced through Naruto's neck, as well as his vital nerves, 13 years of his life being rendered forfeit in under five seconds. Haku found it easy… _astoundingly_ easy, his foe not even attempting to block the needles as they had flown at him.

_**FOOM!**_

Naruto's body exploded into a patch of thin, messy smoke. Haku was gravely disappointed but not surprised.

_A Shadow clone._

There was no shock in Haku's thoughts, but no real anger either. Naruto's clone had not done anything to avert him from his path. It had served as little more than a distraction, one from which Haku didn't know what they hoped to achieve. That was until he saw Naruto and Sasuke standing on the ground through the fading smoke. They weren't moving and definitely weren't in any position to stop him before he could make it back into the mirror. Then he realized Naruto, the real Naruto, was only wearing a thin black shirt. Haku looked back towards the shadow clone explosion in front of him.

_He put the real jacket on the shadow clone? But why…_

The answer clicked, causing Haku's eye to swell up with terror. The needles had connected with the shadow clone, which dispersed before they could lose momentum. That meant the needles were left to pierce through the thin fabric of Naruto's track jacket, sharply splintering through the orange fabric but not tearing it enough to bypass it entirely. Instead, it continued to fly backwards, the needles sticking themselves into Hakus intended mirror. It was then that the true intention of the needles became readily apparent to Haku. With the needles imbedded in both the seams of Naruto's jacket and the mirror, it created a makeshift clothesline effect by pinning the jacket to the wall of ice. This basically meant that there was no longer any way for Haku to enter the mirror.

Haku felt his breath hitch.

_**CRACK!**_

Any lights on in his head went out as he crashed into the mirror with enough speed and force that he was lucky his spine and neck stayed intact through the process. Instead of his bones, what cracked was the remains of his mask, chunks of china falling along with him through the sky. His brain was in no state to control anything, it's functions purely confined to the ocular. He blinked. One blink told him that he was falling, another that his mask had been shattered. Soon enough, he realized that the white specks flying through the air were being joined by specks of ice.

_Oh._

This thought was a prime example of just how out of it Haku was. The mirrors of ice began to splinter and shatter into pieces, and he barley took notice, mind currently being far far away from the events of now. The wind surged against his neck as he fell through the air, growing louder and louder the closer he got to the ground. It was like a crescendo to his eventual death, every second in the air bringing him closer and closer to the hard concrete. Haku blinked again.

* * *

_Hazel eyes shot open, almost immediately stinging. Haku brought his hand up to his face, washing away some of the hot grains of sand that had built up around his eyes. He soon noticed that he wasn't walking under his own powered, instead being piggy backed. From the tape around his carriers' neck, he immediately identified him as Zabuza. The older man's sandals cracked through the moon-lit desert, occasionally turning horizontal as he attempted to remove the residual sand that managed to creep into the soles of his shoes. _

"_Haku…" He said, noticing the boy's awakening. His naturally grizzled voice made his words sound like a growl. _

"_Mm?" Haku replied. His inflection was attentive and respectful, but his dry, hot throat deterred him from actual word pronunciation. _

"_Here. "Zabuza passed him a water-skin, to which he grasped hungrily, immediately removing the cork and taking a large swig. The water was cool and fresh, washing away all the bitter taste from Haku's throat. He and Zabuza had realized pretty early how awful the water in Suna was, so Haku had begun using water-style to freeze he and Zabuza's waterskins in an attempt to replicate the cool, refreshing taste of __Kirigakure_'s. _After remembering this, he began to sputter, hasty to take the canteen out of his mouth. He'd drunk too much of it already. _

"_Keep drinking. You need it after what you did with the mirrors." Zabuza said back, tone bringing forth another set of memories into Haku's mind. The zoetrope hadn't worked as well as he'd hoped. There was no way he didn't have a chakra blockage after that, which probably explained why his master was adamant on him drinking._

"_I'm sorry Zabuza-sensei." _

"_Save it. Just don't go dying on me before we get to the mist." _

_**Don't go dying**_

_**Don't go dying on**_

_**Don't go dying on me. **_

* * *

Haku snapped back to lucidity. In barely half a second, he grasped the situation he was in. No chakra and plummeting towards the ground headfirst at an angle that would certainly break his neck if he didn't shift his position. The problem was, he was barley even a meter above the pavement, if he was going to shift himself, he needed to do it quickly. Moving his barley feelable left arm to the side, using it to swinging himself over horizontally. This was still going to hurt, but it wasn't going to kill him.

_**CRACK!**_

Or was it? Pain surged through everything from his left shoulder down, running deeper than anything he'd felt before. Nerves seized up like a knife had been run through them, while bones began to either crack or detach completely. An attempt to grit his teeth to ward off the hurt was essentially useless, Haku still crying out in pain as the entirety of his left arm was functionally lit on fire.

"_**AHHHHHH!**_" An entirely different scream came from the air, as Sakura plummeted. She'd been not been expecting the mirrors to just full on shatter like they had, and had been unprepared as a result.

"Oh shit, Sasuke catch her!" Naruto yelled, jutting his finger up at the sky to make sure the Uchiha knew where he should be looking (an action that was completely unnecessary considering how loudly Sakura was yelling). Sasuke briefly opened his mouth to protest but quickly realized that he was indeed closer. Outstretching his arms, Sasuke waited for the girl to finally reach the range of his arm-span. As soon as she did, he grabbed onto her waist awkwardly, which did admittedly do a good job at slowing her momentum down. He felt relieved that, one, His teammate had not just turned into a red stain on the ground and two, her cries of bloody murder seemed to subsidize as soon as she realized Sasuke had stopped her fall but wasn't too happy about the fact that Naruto was giving him the most obvious sideye he'd ever seen.

"Are you okay?" He mumbled as he placed her onto her feet.

"…Yeah." Sakura managed to say through heavy breathes, having to try and grasp that she wasn't dying then was dying and now isn't dead. With a small smile, she tilted her head back towards Sasuke. "Thanks for catching me."

Sasuke immediately jilted his head the other way to avoid eye-contact while using every single fiber of cognitive ability in his head to keep his expression neutral and his cheeks un-flushed.

"No problem." He mumbled, barely coherent. That neutral expression quickly turned to anger as Naruto's voice hit him like a brick to the skull.

"Ah, get a room."

"Shut the fuck up!" Sasuke snapped back, antagonistic tone not matching how menial Naruto's comment was. The boy just smiled, picking up his tattered jacket from the floor before removing the residual ice and needles from its threading. He wasn't just smiling because of the fact he'd managed to rile Sasuke up (though that was part of it), he was happy that they'd managed to defeat Haku with all of them in one piece. There was a tension in battle that weighed on you like a large block of iron. The removal of that weight usually let forth a euphoria higher than any you'd experienced before. As Naruto pulled the jacket over himself, he felt that euphoria buzzing through him. The euphoria of battle.

Or maybe he was just glad he and his friends weren't dead, who knows.

"Stop!"

His focus suddenly became targeted on Sasuke and Sakura, the former pointing a kunai at a battered girl on the ground. Except Naruto immediately realized it wasn't a girl.

"What the hell?!" He yelled, rushing over to the side of the other genin without even bothering to zip up his jacket. "You're the guy I saw the other day!"

Sasuke put some of his attention on Naruto, though he kept the kunai raised at Haku.

"Guy?"

"Yeah! He just looks like a girl. He told me when I saw him in the forest!"

"You said you were taking a piss in the forest."

"Well I…saw him while I was taking a piss." Sasuke visibly raised an eyebrow at Naruto's absolutely baffling response, which the Uzumaki boy took no notice of. "Anyway, what the fuck are you doing trying to kill us?!"

Haku said nothing, instead futilely attempting to try and push himself back up onto his feet with his right arm. His left was essentially useless, being barley intact from his fall. There was no way he could use it to gather an upward momentum, so that burden purely fell on his right. He had no visual on where Zabuza was, eyesight blurred by how hard he'd landed. In fact, now that he thought about, almost every sense he had was dulled now. His eyes flicked to the side, gazing over at the genin who had crowded around him. It was hard to make them out, vision splitting into doubles at the slightest move of his head, but with a bit of stability he got the general picture. Naruto was screaming at him. Haku didn't care, maybe he would've had he been able to hear him, but his hearing was so shot, the blonde sounded like he was underwater. Sasuke was holding a kunai out at him. If Haku was to get up, he'd have no chance of dodging it in the state he was in. If he were to get up, he'd have to attempt to tank the blow and just hope that Sasuke didn't hit him in his left arm. Even the thought of that made him wince up.

Slowly, Haku's began to successfully push himself up off the ground. It wasn't much, only a few centimeters, but enough that Haku thought he might be able to successfully swing himself back onto his legs and then up to his feet. His fingers extended as far as they could possibly go, brushing over the ice and concrete under his hand. After a few seconds, Haku's grip faltered and he slammed back against the ground. Sudden was the only word to describe it. One second he was about to sit up, and the next he was on the ground. He didn't even really process what had happened until the rain started to hit the back of his head, running down through his brown hair like a river. Normally, this wouldn't even register as an inconvenience, but the pitter-pattering of the rain on the pavement triggered something inside Haku. It made him give up.

He knew bridges terrain would quickly become slippery now. If he couldn't push himself up normally, he had no chance of doing it with the rain water seeping over the stone. His right arm wasn't strong enough, his left arm was barely even connected. He was completely immobile…_completely useless. _

There was only one thing he could do now.

Haku softly tilted his head towards the genin, rain running down the bridge of his nose. His matted hair had become undone and lay across the ground like an abstract painting. Thunder boomed over the land of waves.

"Kill me."

Whatever the three had been saying before, they shut up now. At even the concept of murder, the three's expression shriveled up, Sasuke's being significantly more muted than the other two's however. Any dialogue was silenced, the only sound apparent being the boom of the thunder through the clouds and the dropping of the rain on the concrete.

"What?" Sakura was the first to speak, voice so quiet that even Naruto and Sasuke, who were standing right next to her, couldn't hear it.

"Please kill me." Haku repeated, reading the girls lips to make up for his lack of stable hearing. His expression was blank, or at least attempting to be. "If I can't win this fight, I can no longer serve Zabuza-sensei as his tool, therefore I no longer have a purpose in this world."

The almost-scared reactions of the three stayed on for a little bit longer, until Naruto's contorted into one of fury.

"That's the biggest load of bullshit I've heard in my life!" He barked at Haku, the mist ninja being unfazed by the intenseness of the insult. "Is your sensei all you really care about?! What kind of moron are you, asking us to kill you?"

Haku's expression remained blank. Naruto's eyes were no longer kind, they no longer looked like the understood. They were jagged and beady in anger. He'd expected this kind of response from the boy as soon as he'd asked the question. By forfeiting his life over someone like Zabuza, he'd spat in the face of Naruto's headstrong self-importance and as a result his goal. There was no chance he killed him. The pink-haired girl to his left wouldn't either, she looked like she was about to throw up. His only hope rested squarely on Sasuke's shoulders alone.

"Do it." The Uchiha said in a hushed voice, stepping out in front of his friends with the kunai braced at his thighs. Haku would've smiled if he wasn't about to be killed. Naruto, in the meanwhile, turned on his heel harshly while looking over to his friend.

"Are you joking Sasuke?! You can't just kill him!" As Sasuke took another step forward, Naruto gripped onto his shoulder, pulling him backwards with a bit too much force. Sasuke threw a hand back, not in a punch, but in an attempt to try and slap the other boy's grip away. There obviously wasn't much power or speed behind it, so Naruto was able to easily duck out of the way. Sasuke quickly turned around to face the other boy, face attempting to come off calm but twitching with a clear undercurrent of anfer.

"You remember how big Zabuza's bounty was? If he helped with even half of that, he's scum better off dead than rotting away on some cell floor."

"But- "Naruto attempted to protest, but was quickly cut off.

"No but. If you wanna be humanitarian, you heard him yourself. He's useless to his master, so there's nothing for him to live for."

Naruto flinched as the words Haku had said to him rung out in his head.

"_To lack a purpose in this world…it's a truly awful feeling." _

His face immediately dropped, eyes pointing down at his feet, which stepped backwards away from Sasuke.

"Okay. Kill him." Naruto mumbled, voice going no higher than a rasped whisper. Haku's dream was dead. Keeping him alive would simply be kicking the corpse. Sasuke nodded his head at the boys answer before turning back towards Haku. His began to walk forward, steps being deliberately slow and intentional. Not for intimidation or anything like that, no, Sasukes steps were slow because each one carried uncertainty under them. Haku watched those steps and wished he could still remember walking like that. It was was no use thinking about that now, however, Haku knew that. His hazel eyes slowly began to shut, as he leaned back against his thick mop of hair that had clumped up under him. It was a strange feeling, knowing you were going to die in just a few seconds. The sound of the rain anesthetized it somewhat. The pitter-pattering created a rhythm for Haku to latch onto, it's sound lulling him into a trance half-way between awareness and rest.

_**TapTaptaptaptaptap**_

Haku was intent to lay there, eyes shutting out the light until there was no light to be shut out, but as the sound of Sasuke's footsteps grew louder and louder, he found he wanted to see the sky again. A bizarrely random thought, but one Haku deemed appropriate. He had been so occupied with fighting the trio of genin that he'd not even really looked at the sky. He didn't want to die without a picture of the sky in his mind. His eyes opened up, just for a second, though he wasn't directly facing the sky like he thought he had been. His head was jilted to the back. That was how he saw it.

He saw the lightning sizzling through the sky


	12. -Resting Silent Waves

Lightning crackled from Kakashi's hand, abstract and sharp. The rain in the sky sizzled into the electricity, amplifying its light at every drop. His sharingan was focused directly on Zabuza, steely, unmoving gaze contrasting with the demon of the mists thrashing. He tried in vain to try and escape the clutches of Kakashi's ninken, but it was useless. Their teeth and paws had solid grips into his back, one especially large one looking like it could just about eat his head whole if it tried. Try as he might, their grip had completely neutralized any options for defense he had.

Through his shaking, Zabuza's view eventually rested on Kakashi's own, both pairs of eyes interlocking. The mist ninja felt his breath hitch. When someone was about kill another person, their eyes became wild, ragged, _crazy_. Kakashi's were cold and resolute, leaving no doubt in Zabuza's mind that the pain of killing was well and truly dulled for him. There was also no doubt in Zabuza's mind that this attack was going to kill him. Whether it hit the face, heart, shoulder or whatever, the force of impact and general size of the attack would for certain be enough to kill him, unless Kakashi were to inexplicably go for his arms or legs. But he wouldn't. Zabuza remembered, when Kakashi had last used the Chidori, his arm was angled straight towards the heart.

The droplets of rain trickled through Kakashi's hair, running down to the top of his nose. Thunder rung out through the air, each strike of it making Zabuza _that _much surer he was going to make his move. Suddenly, Kakashi changed his stance, positioning significantly lower to the ground than before. His head became angled downward, to the point Zabuza could no longer make out any facial features. The angle stayed for no more than a few seconds. Its existence seemed pointless, though Zabuza couldn't help but hear a mumble of words coming from Kakashi. Maybe it was the wind.

Kakashi titled his head back up, sharingan illuminated by the specter of the Chidori. He said one thing.

"End of the line."

Zabuza felt the certainty of his death drag on his back.

Kakashi began to run forward.

* * *

Sasuke slowly walked towards Haku, holding his kunai tight, maybe a little too tight. He attempted to project an air of composure, but his hesitated, janky movements told a different story. It wasn't like anyone would pick up on it, with Sakura looking about ready to throw up while Naruto hung his head downwards, gritting his teeth, but Sasuke's demeanor was obviously harsh with uncertainty. Each step closer towards Haku (and as a result, the kill) brought forth a new question in the young Uchiha's mind. Why was he doing this? How did the others feel? Why wouldn't they do it? Was he a bad person for doing it? Was he just doing it to prove to himself he could _when_ _it mattered_?

Sasuke clutched the kunai just that little bit harder, trying to flush out all the thoughts through the pressure. His fingers were tightly locked into his palms, to the point that if he were to grip any firmer, he'd end up bleeding. He gazed over Haku, in another attempt to try and stray the focus of his mind from the effects of the action, to the action itself. At the very least, Haku looked at peace with what was about to come next. Sasuke, on the other-hand, didn't even have peace with _how _he was going to kill Haku. He could go for the throat maybe, but then he'd have to bob Hakus head up and…

Sasuke began to feel sick the more he thought about it. The sinking of the blade, the blood running down the kunai, these images ran through his mind. His breath became sharper, fears reverberating up his spine and halting his body from moving. The more he looked up at Haku, the less it looked like Haku at all. He was no longer walking through the rain-painted bridge, no, instead it was a late night at the Uchiha compound**. **Haku was no longer in front of him. In his place was a body, throat slit. He desperately stuck a hand over his mouth to muffle his cries, tears running down his black eyes as the loss of life was surveyed. Corpses were scattered about, each one being someone Sasuke had grown to know. Blood washed over the wooden flooring like water at a beach, staining it in a permeant scare that wouldn't ever wash off no matter how many times Sasuke had scrubbed it clean.

"_Sasuke_." The voice bounced through the halls, deep and monotone. Sasuke felt his breath completely stop. The entire world went silent. Then came the footsteps. They were marred by the splash of blood, and the slight creak of the wood, but each one served to freeze Sasuke exactly where he was. His brain was practically screaming at him to move, but the message just wouldn't compute with the rest of him.

"_Sasuke_." The voice rang out again. The footsteps became more and more prominent, indicating that Itachi was no more than a room over.

"_Sasuke_."

"_Sasuke_."

"SASUKE!"

Naruto's voice burst through the confines of Sasuke's mind, snapping the Uchiha's eyes wide open. Judging from the other boy's annoyed tone, he must've been unresponsive for a while. He briefly turned back to Naruto, shooting his friend a quick gaze from over the shoulder.

"Hmm?"

"Hurry up and do it if you're going to do it." The Uzumaki said, voice going from aggravated yelling to harsh whispering at the drop of a hat. His eyes were still pointed straight at the ground, distracting himself with the raindrops on the concrete. Each one added an extra splatter of darkness to the bridges naturally white make-up. It took everything in Naruto to suppress the urge to crash tackle Sasuke, take the kunai and throw it off the bridge but he couldn't.

**_Until he came along, I had nearly frozen to death more times than I can count._**

**_To lack a purpose in this world…it's a truly awful feeling._**

Naruto repeated Haku's words in his head over and over, in an attempt to calm himself down. Haku had clearly bet his self-worth on his abilities to protect Zabuza, and now that that was over, it was cruel to keep him alive at this point. At least, that's what Naruto repeated over and over in his head. Sasuke, in the meanwhile, attempted to compose himself. He needed to do it quick. Less pain, less guilt, less…recollection. He couldn't afford himself time to think about blood or any of that stuff. He just had to put Haku out of his misery.

This mission statement lasted for barely two seconds, as Sasuke very quickly halted his approach. Haku had opened his eyes. They weren't fixated on his looming death, instead facing right of the center, at something Sasuke hadn't taken notice off before. Kakashi was facing down Zabuza, lightening pulsating from his palm. Dogs were currently stationed on the demon of the mist, not seriously harming him, but keeping him in place for the death-blow that Kakashi was sure to inflict. Sasuke would've found it somewhat reassuring if he hadn't caught Haku turning his gaze onto him.

"Stop- "Sasuke began to issue a threat, but severely underestimated how close he was to Haku. The mist ninjas foot shot out, pushing Sasuke off his feet and causing the boy to faceplant onto the concrete along with his kunai. The other two genin were completely taken off guard, expectedly so as Haku had gone from "future-corpse" to "sharp as a whip" in less than a second. Naruto was the first to recover, quickly making charge at his foe.

"_Sasuke…__**Aah!**_" He was too slow to realize Haku had seized Sasuke's kunai, and received it thrown into his shoulder as a reward. Whether it was Haku's intended destination or not, it didn't matter, as Naruto quickly lost control of his lower-body from the "zero to one hundred" effect of pain that had rushed through him. The boy tumbled to the ground, orange jacket beginning to be stained red from the shoulder outwards.

Sakura stayed immobilized in surprise, giving Haku a golden opportunity to break out into a sprint. The only problem was, there was not nearly enough strength in his right arm to push him up, that had been demonstrated before. He needed both arms if he was going to make it to his feet, and considering his left was essentially a big pillar of erratic nerve pain that would be better off amputated than attached to any human. That being said, Sakura would soon snap out of her shock, leaving Haku defenseless, so he really didn't have a choice.

It was the worst pain he'd ever felt. By the time he'd stood up, his arm may as well have fallen off because the only thing he could feel in it was raw compressed agony. It was a testament to Haku's will that he proceeded to break out into a sprint as soon as the soles of his sandals touched the ground. It wasn't the prettiest dash, Haku looking like he was about to stumble over himself at any second, but it got the job done considering the state the mist youth was in. He ran with no care for what was behind him, only what was in front.

**_Bad Guy running away. Maybe you should do something to stop that, but, hey, what do I know?_**

Inner-Sakura's sarcasm stunned Sakura back to reality, even if her focus immediately turned to Naruto instead of the actual threat in the room. She dropped down close to him, ruffling through her pockets in hopes of finding a bandage.

"_Naruto! _Are you okay?" She asked, taking note of how badly parts of his jacket had been turned red. If she hadn't known what color was meant to be, she'd have thought it had been intentionally dyed. Her teal eyes scanned over the splotches of crimson, becoming more concerned the longer she stared at them. "Don't take the knife out. You're already losing too much blood."

"Yeah, yeah." Naruto grunted, switching from closed eyes to gritted teeth as an outlet for the pain. Those eyes immediately went wide as he saw Haku making his wild dash towards Kakashi and Zabuza.

"Hey Sakura! That might be a problem!" He practically yelled, jutting his good arm outwards towards the fleeing foe.

"Oh, right!" Sakura replied, somewhat embarrassed that her first instinct had been to help Naruto instead of attempting to stop him. With her hand already in her pocket, she discarded any intentions to find a bandage in favor of two shuriken that had been previously stashed in there. Grasping them in between her fingers, Sakura readied the shot, adjusting her arm to the wind and the distance between her and Haku. Sharpening her elbow backwards, Sakura unleashed a slick shot with the shuriken. The stars loudly flew, as well as cut, through the air, directly on target for Haku.

Despite this fact, Haku still didn't look back, knowing he didn't have time to dodge around them. He could of maybe slid under them, but then the unfortunate question of "did he have to the power to stand back up" arose, and it was one Haku was not particularly happy to ask. So instead of attempting some grand ploy to meander out of the shuriken's range, Haku just kept running, trying not to focus on the blades became painfully stuck into his back.

**_SHINKT!_**

"No way." Sakura thought out loud, as she watched her well thrown shuriken do nothing in slowing Haku down.

"What the hell?!" Naruto's more abrasive thoughts echoed her sentiment, both watching in awe as the boy dashed forward. Sakura very quickly rose up to her feet in an attempt to give chase, but deep down she knew it was for naught. Haku had already ran too far ahead for her to catch up, every step forward being fueled by pure, unfiltered adrenaline. He had to keep running, for his and Zabuza's sake.

_He had to keep running_.

* * *

Kakashi dashed forward, lightning crackling through the air. Like a flower with lose petals, the chidori sent bolts of electricity floating through the air, crescendoing with light but fading away all the same. He'd always found that the Chidori tended to get hotter the closer he got to a kill. He didn't know if that was a mental tick, or legitimately a side-effect of the attack getting closer to another human, but it was certainly there. He couldn't waste thought on the ins-and-outs of the chidori, however, as he edged closer and closer to Zabuza. To protect his summons, Kakashi would have to repel them as soon as he was in stabbing range of the other man. Unfortunately, this was made difficult by the tunnel vision that the chidori instilled upon its user.

See, the chidori was no regular lightning jutsu. Being able to form lightning in the user's palm was only half of it, the other half was running with the jutsu in an attempt to build up greater static charge which in turn, increased its piercing damage. By running at the speed you did, your vision became hampered. It was harder to make out distance and counter-attacks, with your hand often being a few centimeters less than where you thought it was. The sharingan helped circumvent this to a point, but due to Kakashi only having one, it was far from a steady experience. Nevertheless, he prepared his other hand with a dismissal sign waiting until he was _just _close enough to Zabuza that he'd have no chance for a counterattack.

Kakashi took one more step before doing it, smoke radiating off of the surprised Zabuza as the dogs were dispersed. Despite his restrainers being removed, there was nothing he could do to stop the oncoming attack. Kakashi had already crossed the distance that Zabuza could feasibly land an easy knockout punch or kick from, and his head was positioned too low for the other man to attempt a headbutt. There was not enough time for a jutsu, or even retrieving his nearby sword. Zabuza could do nothing but watch as Kakashi angled his arm up towards his heart. The hairs on his arms began to stand up, whether it was from the static or fear Zabuza didn't know. He didn't know, because he wasn't focused on the hair on his arms. Yet again, he was focused on Kakashi's eyes.

Those days after the trials, after he'd passed out with his tape in tatters, covered in his friends' blood, Zabuza had looked in the bathroom mirror. What started back at him was a boy, wide-eyed and afraid, tears gushing from his face like a faucet. But after each day and each kill, those tears began to dry. The blood on his clothes ceased to be an object of fear, and started to be no more than an annoyance. A strange mix of the two is what Kakashi resembled now, eyes illuminated by the light of the chidori. They looked unsure. That was Zabuza's final takeaway. He let his body relax, almost at peace with the fact that in less than a second, Kakashi's hand would impale him and he'd cease living. It'd be over before he'd even complete his next thought, so why even bother? He took one last look at Kakashi's eyes, and it was almost like he was staring into the mirror again.

**_Fwoosh._**

Both of the men's views became impaired by a blurry figure. Before Zabuza could figure out what it was, the sound of electric discharge and pierced flesh became apparent and the man locked his eyes shut in preparation for the oncoming shot of pain that was about to shoot through him. Except it never came. Blood splattered over Zabuza, but it was not his own. At first, he thought maybe he'd died so quickly that there hadn't even been a split-second left for him to feel the hurt but the ever-present sound of the rain and thunder told him he was still of this earth. His eyes shot back open, almost immediately widening at the sight before him.

Haku stood in front of him, blood splattered over his face and torso. Kakashi's hand stuck out the back of him, his body being the only thing stopping the chidori from impaling Zabuza. Instead, he'd taken the hit himself.

_Haku?! _

The thought ran through his head as he came to the realization of what had happened. Haku had sacrificed himself, taken an attack not targeted at him, to make sure Zabuza stayed alive. Kakashi looked like he'd seen a ghost, eyes widened in fear. Hell, his mumbling was the thing that brought Zabuza back to attention.

"_No, no, no, nonono…_" He continually mumbled, functionally paralyzed as both blood and rain ran through his features. Even the sight of Haku turning his head slightly towards Zabuza did nothing to make him move. Zabuza couldn't help but grimace at the sight of his student's face covered in blood, some of it smeared thanks to the droplets of the rain. Haku's breathing was obviously heavy, the last remaining strings of life becoming plucked from his weave, but his face did nothing to reflect that.

"Zabuza-sensei…_I'm sorry_." Haku softly smiled at his teacher, the last look he'd ever give him before his body stiffed up with finality. His eyes stayed open, but the noticeable deadweighting of his body on Kakashi's arm indicated that he was dead. The three genin watched from the sidelines, taking in the gristly sight. Sasuke had barley recovered from being dropped on his face, and the first sight he saw when he recovered was Kakashi's arm stabbing through Haku's abdomen. Naruto visibly looked at the ground, biting his lip in an attempt to pretend he couldn't see anything. Sakura, on the other-hand, couldn't look away as much as she wanted to. She just held her hands over her mouth, in utter and complete shock. Not a single word was said between them.

Haku's life was over. He'd traded his bountiful life for his sensei's, and that sensei didn't care. There was one thing he cared about, and that was the sword lying not even a meter away from his side. If it hadn't been clear before, the purpose of Haku's death had just been spelled out to him.

_A tool to the very end, hey Haku?_

Zabuza rolled to the side and gripped the sever-sword before darting back upwards towards Kakashi. The idiot was still standing there, murmuring to himself. In fact, Haku's words had only increased the fear and sadness in Kakashi's eyes, he hadn't even noticed Zabuza move. His eyes were purely locked on Haku, a slave to his own fear whose captivity left him wide open. All Zabuza needed to do was slice through Haku, and he'd cut Kakashi's arm off whole. He didn't care how great a ninja the other man was, once one of his arms was gone, he may as well have been a genin. The demon of the mist leapt to the sky, hoping to harness just _enough _of his downward momentum to make the slash a nice clean cut. Haku had hand-gifted him Kakashi's death on a silver platter, with the perfect positioning and everything. His death was just a way of helping Zabuza to his biggest win yet, nothing more than expected of a tool.

He plunged downward, bloodlust in his eyes. Kakashi couldn't counter at this point. In the time it would take for him to remove his hand from Haku's body and come up with a response, Zabuza would have already decapitated him. The mist ninja gripped at his sword, fully ready to chop through his tool to get to Kakashi. Haku was dead, therefore he was useless, mutilating the corpse meant nothing to Zabuza.

…So why the fuck couldn't he do it?

Zabuza let the window of opportunity pass him by, landing on the ground without moving the sword an inch. It would be so easy. A diagonal slice through Haku would easily net him Kakashi's arm along with it. Haku was already dead. From a strategical standpoint, it made literally no sense that Zabuza wasn't doing it. Every rational bone in his body was **_crying _**out for his brain to issue the command…but he couldn't. He didn't know why, but he couldn't. Zabuza let out a growl of frustration, directed completely and utterly at himself. For some reason, he couldn't cut through Haku but he'd be damned if he couldn't kill Kakashi. Gripping a hand onto his students' shoulder, he tossed the body backwards, removing it from Kakashi's hand in an attempt to open the man up for an attack. Almost immediately, he realized this had been a bad idea. Kakashi's dazed sate may have let him overlook background motion, but as soon as Zabuza had entered his direct line of sight, he snapped back to reality fast and his foot snapped into Zabuza's face faster. The other jonin didn't even get a chance to wield his sword before he was being sent to the floor.

He crashed against the concrete hard, dropping the sword yet again. His golden opportunity, one only accomplishable with the aide of death, wasted. He didn't know if it was his aching body or his frustration but he struggled to get back to his feet. When he did, he was met with the sight of Kakashi standing tall, gaze free of fear or hesitation. Instead, it was filled with sadness and pity. Sadness and pity that only served to make Zabuza's blood boil.

"I'm sorry for your loss." He said, voice audible but low. There was no doubt that Kakashi's apologies were genuine but it was that genuineness that took Zabuza's blood from a boil to a full-blown wildfire.

"You think I give a shit?!" Zabuza screamed back, leering forward on wobbly legs. His tone was a jawbreaker of negative emotions, each one peeling back to reveal another layer of anger and resentment. His eyes were solid and beady as they stared back at Kakashi. "He's nothing but a tool. A stepping stone for **_my _**achievement! And you know what?! There's plenty of fuckin' stones in the sea, Kakashi. I just care about _killing you and __**those pigs at the mist**__!"_

Zabuza's voice cracked, heavy and horse. It was uncharacteristically enriched with emotion that the man hadn't been able to muster up since he was a boy, but as badly as he wanted to convince himself that he was speaking with anger and conviction, there was nothing in his voice but a lonely, solemn sadness. Kakashi picked up on it too, taken off-guard by how vulnerable the other man's voice portrayed him…that and the tears that were running down his face. Zabuza stood there, crying, for a reason he didn't (or at least pretended not to) know. Kakashi had at first assumed it was the rain dampening the bandages around his face, but rain didn't streak down from the eyes like Zabuza's was doing now. Upon seeing the grief spelt out on his face, the pity in Kakashi's face became unmistakable. _Completely unmistakable. _

Another growl came from Zabuza, as he charged towards Kakashi with an intent to somehow beat him in hand-to-hand. It was an absurd pipe-dream, running on nothing but sorrow and fury, and maybe deep down even Zabuza knew it. He ran towards his foe, hurling an array of hard, slick, heavy, furious and utterly _pathetic _punches at him. Kakashi easily dodged through every single one with the most minimal of difficulty. For the first time in his two fights with Zabuza, there was not a single bit of fear that an attack could land. Maybe it was the futility of the situation, maybe it was the tears welled up in his eyes, but Zabuza would have had trouble hitting even the air with any amount of precision. Soon enough, Kakashi dropped him back down to the concrete with an elbow to the head.

It wasn't being throw down yet again that quelled Zabuza's spirit. Nope, he was fully intent to stand right back up and repeat the process until he couldn't do it anymore, but when he was knocked down, he landed facing Haku's far-away body. That was when he truly saw Haku's eyes, their fragility and their hurt. Nothing scared Zabuza more than the wild look of someone who weren't prepared to die. That was exactly what he looking back at him, burrowing into his soul and uprooting the memory of every time he'd seen them. In that one moment, Zabuza's will to fight was completely extinguished. Everything he'd spent years working for, the motivation just died out, like a flower in the desert. If he'd ever taken his eyes off his goal, off the trials, maybe he would've realized it sooner but there was only thing he really knew right now.

Haku was an awful tool.

He didn't move for maybe the next fifteen seconds, expecting Kakashi to finish him off in that time. Instead, the copy ninja seemingly did nothing, forcing Zabuza to sit up. Kakashi was for some reason just standing there, his pity so strong Zabuza could practically smell it.

"C'mon, do it." Zabuza said, not intending to whisper but his voice so low it may as well have been.

"Hm?"

"**_WHAT THE FUCK ARE YOU WAITING FOR?! _**For me to "repent my sins" and say I'm "oh so sorry"?! **_Fucking kill me Kakashi_****!**" Zabuza screamed out, voice shattering like glass multiple times over. Naruto, Sakura and Sasuke watched on from the distance, each one sitting next to the other. A bandage was wrapped around Naruto's shoulder, courtesy of Sakura. Maybe it was just them not noticing, maybe it was it halted the pain, but no one was willing to break the closeness between them.

"So Haku's dead right?" Naruto said, obviously distraught but attempting to make conversation. Maybe a part of him hoped that one of the others would explain how the attack had simply been a flesh-wound and they could take him back to Maiya and-

"Yep." Sasuke replied, unintentionally taking a sledgehammer to his fantasy.

"So, like, really dead."

"Yep."

"…So- "

"He got stabbed through the fucking chest Naruto, I don't think he's gonna walk it off." Sasuke said, seemingly angry that he had to explain something so obvious to his friend but watching his face drop made that anger fizzle out immediately.

"Yeah, okay." It was made apparent Naruto had known. What he was doing was hoping for a magical answer that made everything alright. Sasuke could relate (something he hadn't done since he was eight).

"…Or maybe he will." Sasuke said, attempting to walk back his statements. It was a little bit late for that, Naruto having accepted the outcome. Despite this, Sasuke remained fascinated by Naruto's actions. To feel grief for someone like Haku, someone who'd hadn't done anything but briefly talk to him, and then try to kill him… that was empathy. Pure, distilled, empathy. Sasuke had never thought Naruto was a bad person. A delusional idiot, maybe but never a "bad person". Now, he had never been surer that Naruto was a _good_ person.

"We should bury them." Sakura sucked him out of his morality check, words shaky and tearful. Unlike the other two, she was still obviously in shock from seeing a dead body, so words must've been hard to muster. "Maybe up by the hills or something."

The other two nodded their heads in agreement, only for all three of them to turn around quickly at the sound of footstep behind them.

"Calm down, calm down, it's just me." Tazuna whispered, making his way down from his hiding spot at the very edge of the bridge. All three of the genin breathed a sigh of relief at the fact that they wouldn't have to fight another battle in both the physical and mental states they were in. The bridge builder joined their formation, sitting down next to them and observing the scene. He'd have been lying if he said he wasn't relieved, but still, to see a kid like the one in the mask dying so young. Tazuna couldn't help but get a little choked up. Muji wasn't that much older when Gato had him killed.

"Hey, Naruto." He grumbled, getting nothing more than a curt head turn from the boy. The fact that this head turn was not accompanied by some sort of speech was the biggest sign of the state that Naruto was currently in. Tazuna paid it some mind, taking a swig from his cantina before looking back towards him. "I was wrong."

He kept it brief for Naruto's sake, not wanting to ramble on to a child who was potentially traumatized. Little did he know that the meaning of what he said was far from lost. Naruto chirped up slightly, with one thought running through his mind.

_Heroes do exist, huh?_

The four of them continued to sit there, another word not being spoken. Unfortunately, there was a significantly harsher conversation going down just a few feet away

"**_ARE YOU FUCKING DEAF?! I SAID KILL ME!"_** Zabuza barked, rolling over on his back and spreading his arms out. He was _begging_ Kakashi to kill him at this point, essentially turning himself into a lamb while being right next to a slaughterhouse. Despite his screaming and thrashing though, Kakashi stayed completely stationary, either overwhelmingly saddened or overwhelmingly disturbed by the display.

"**_Do I need to go get the sword and do it myself?! Is that what you-_** "

"Quiet." Kakashi finally spoke, the sudden appearance of his voice serving as enough of a surprise to cut Zabuza off. "I'll do it."

Thunder boomed through the clouds dramatically in-time with the statement. There was a small gap of silence, the only sound either of them hearing being the rain pitter-pattering on the pavement (and even that was beginning to die out).

"thank you." Zabuza finally said, so softly Kakashi would've asked him "what?" under any other circumstance. Instead, he let the words fade into the wind as Zabuza positioned himself onto his knees. He couldn't help but feel disgusted at the blood that clung to his clothes, a feeling he thought he was used to. It was only blood after all, but with the repulsion it sent through the man, it may as well have been replaced with iron. He desperately wanted the rain to wash it away, to bleach him clean and wash his students' blood down into the depths of the sea but a small part of him realized that only when the life drained from his eyes would he truly be clean. The sharp ring of the kunai being unsheathed rung incredibly apparent through the air. Zabuza refused to open his eyes if he had a choice, he just wanted it over and done with. Kakashi's footsteps tapped against the concrete, the distance between each one feeling like an hour to Zabuza before, just like that, they stopped.

In the oncoming seconds, the demon of the mist would take the silence as an omen of his death. It was hard to keep a consistent train of thought, knowing that at any second that train would simply cease to exist. Really, there was only one thing that Zabuza managed to tell himself, through bloodstained rags and soggy tape.

_**I'm **__sorry Haku_

He was fine with it ending there. One final notation on his life before Kakashi ended it. In truth, this was a half-second away from happening, Kakashi literally one elbow tuck away from slashing through Zabuza's throat. But what happened next halted his mercy killing, as a loud, obnoxious cry of:

"**_MOMOCHI!_**"

Rung out through the bridge. Kakashi was surprised to hear any voice at all, especially one not belonging to any of Team Seven. Instead, at the top of the bridge, stood a short, stout mustached man, smirking to himself. Zabuza's popped an eye open to see what dumb piece of shit had decided to take a trek out to the bridge today, only for that eye to immediately slant in anger as he saw the man that had actually yelled his name.

"Gato!" Tazuna exclaimed, throwing his flask to the side in anger.

"Wait, that's Gato?" Naruto reaffirmed the question that was on the other genins mind, strangely struggling to comprehend that the short, slightly overweight man who stood in front of them was indeed Gato, the tyrant who had turned the wave into a shantytown.

"Yep! What the hells he doing here?!" The old man yelled, angrily thrusting his fist up into the air. Naruto, in the meanwhile, still couldn't get over the fact that _this _was the terrifying Gato. He knew that, of course, it didn't really matter what size he was when speaking in terms of power but Naruto had expected a full-on gangster, with a towering frame, a clean shave and a smooth suit with slicked back black hair. Gato looked like that gangster had shrunk in the dry cleaner. The man was so short, he'd struggle to reach top compartment on any decent-sized fridge. His suit and glasses were admittedly fancy, but it didn't mean much when it looked like his hair was just about ready to fall out at any second and his face looked like it was melting.

"**_Hey, MOMOCHI!_**" Gato yelled again, seemingly not going to be satisfied until Zabuza gave some sign of acknowledgment. This sign came in the form of a lazy swivel to face him, the mist ninja giving the man an angered glare in response.

"I hear you."

Gato sniveled to himself as the thick mist behind him began to evaporate, revealing just how many people were standing behind him. Zabuza quickly head-counted, reaching sixty-five give or take a few off either way. It must've been close to, if not all of, his whole gang. One particularly brutish one stood in front of the others and directly behind Gato, wearing nothing on his torso except a jacket that showed various scars. Gato singled for him, causing the man to daintily hand his boss a cigarette, quickly lighting it for him before doing the same for one of his own. Gato puffed out a ball of smoke, thick enough to nearly obscure his face before turning his attention back to Zabuza.

"Suffice to say Mr. Momochi, your contract with the Gato Company has officially been severed." He snickered, before taking another puff of his cigarette.

"Okay." Was all Zabuza said back, futilely attempting to try and ward off what he knew as coming. In reality, he only aggravated it with his simple response not giving Gato the conversational power he desperately craved. His rat-like features slithered up in a quick flash of anger before defaulting to that same vermin smirk.

"All things considered; I've found your performance highly disappointing. Five possible targets, not a single one killed, not even the goddamn genin. From my point of view, it's looking like you weren't worth the time or money investment. **_You screwed me_**." Gato's eyes spiraled madly from under his glasses. Zabuza stared back at him, attempting to convey apathy. However, that apathy couldn't be contained for long, as Gato began to move towards him, or more accurately, Haku.

"And would ya' Look at this. You didn't just fail at killing anyone, you actually lost your own brat." He laughed as he got closer to the corpse in question. Zabuza felt his breath hitch, and he began to get back to his feet.

"Don't." Was all he said. Gato chose not to head the warning. With one sharp motion, _he_ _punted Haku in the head_. This punt was quickly followed by a few more general stomps onto the body, each one fueled by the humiliation Gato had suffered last time the contract was negotiated. Over and over he kicked the youth's corpse, laughing all the while. His loud expression of hilarity was echoed by the rest of his gang, a gaggle of laughter echoing around them. Kakashi watched wide-eyed, disgusted by the display but, considering the reputation Gato had garnered, he couldn't say he was surprised.

**_Clink!_**

Both Gato and Kakashi reshuffled their focus onto something else, that something being a now fully-standing Zabuza, who had calmly collected his sword from the ground. There was a long stretch of quiet, not a single sound running through the wave. This was unmistakably the calm before the storm. Even if the literal storm was beginning to pass, Zabuza was just about ready to stir up a new one. He stood there, silently, all semblance of color and confidence being drained from Gato's face. Even the day Zabuza had slammed his head into the desk and left him bloodied, he hadn't been this angry. His gaze was utterly piercing, made worse by the specks of blood that clung to him. As much as his nickname was just that, a moniker, this was the closest he'd ever looked to an actual demon.

_"_Gato-" He said. His tone was perfectly calm and it only made it worse. "You're going to die."

Maybe it was the way he said it, completely devoid of the emotion that should've been radiating from him. Maybe it was the fact that he looked like an actual crazy person. Whatever it was, it turned Gato from top dog into deer in the headlights real quick. He very quickly turned on his heel, sprinting back towards the safety of his gang while screeching "**_GET HIM! GET HIM!_**"

"Don't worry boss, I'm on it." The scarred one who had handed him the cigarette before puffed out his chest as Zabuza exploded to life, charging right into the belly of the beast. There was no strategy involved, the jonin simply running on pure adrenaline and rage while his sword uprooted sparks as it dragged across the ground. The scarred man waited; a smug smirk plastered onto his face as he waited for Zabuza to get in cutting range. He could picture it so perfectly, an easy decapitation of his foe, leaving the head rolling on the floor. Gato would for sure give him a raise after that, or at least-

**_SLING!_**

_64 Down. _

Before he'd even realized that Zabuza was close, the scarred man had received a slice up the middle of his body. His body immediately went limp, beginning to collapse towards the floor but before he fully hit, Zabuza slickly drove a hand through his pockets. From there, he retrieved the lighter, operating it with one hand while clutching his discretion tape with the other. For a few seconds, the front lines of Gato's personal army were confused. Then they were lit on fire.

Tossing his bandages outward, Zabuza had used them as a makeshift flame-thrower, manipulating the lighter to set them ablaze. Gato's men were underpaid, and as a result, dressed in what amounted to no more than rags. It was like a rainforest trying to defend against a wildfire, much of Gatos frontiers being lit up with searing hot fire. Any defensive strategy the formation may have had was sacrificed as the burned guards began running towards the sides of the bridge, hoping to leap into the ocean and extinguish themselves. Without an intact frontline, Gato's gang began to doubt their leader, letting Zabuza continue bolting forwards.

"QUIT STANDING THERE DO- "Gato began to scream, quickly realizing that his men probably favored their lives more than they favored his. "Uh, SEVEN HUNDRED MILLION RYO TO WHOEVER KILLS HIM!"

That got them moving (though still with no coherent strategy in mind). Zabuza didn't even bother to try and bait out attacks, instead just slashing his sword through anything that moved near him. Faces, details, battle cries, they all blurred together as Zabuza smashed through any opposition that attempted to clash with him.

A large man with a lead pipe?

**_Slash!_**

A pale man with two daggers?

**_Slash!_**

Three men attempting to gang up on him?

**_SLASH! SLASH! SLASH!_**

Zabuza was moving at speeds most of the men couldn't even perceive properly. By the time they'd seen where he was five seconds ago, they had already been drawn and quartered by the sever sword. Fury purveyed every strike, every slash from Kubikiribōchō, its blade melting through men like a hot knife through butter. However, no one was completely unstoppable, and Zabuza was about to find that out. A dark-skinned man, not particularly skilled but not particularly incompetent either, made his way into Zabuza's slaughtering ground. The man did something that Zabuza couldn't prevent…he ducked around his slash. With this simple action, Zabuza was left open to an attack. The man grabbed his blade and slashed away at Zabuza's right arm, Kubikiribōchō dropping onto the floor.

"**_Aah!_**" Zabuza grunted, falling to the ground as fresh blood (this time of his own) began to run down his arm. He sloppily attempted to sit up using it but the other man's slice must've severed a nerve or something, because the appendage was completely limp. Zabuza bobbed his head up to face the man, who was now messily running towards him in an attempt to secure that ryo. The mist jonin rustled through his pockets in hopes of finding something he could fight with, the only tool he came up with being a single, solitary kunai. With his vision darting between that, the charging man and his limp left arm, Zabuza formulated a plan.

**_BAM!_**

Zabuza threw himself back-first against his attacker, taking the other man off-guard. Before he could come to his bearings, Zabuza began to repeatedly _stab the mean through his own numb left arm_. The stabs were wild, only succeeding as an offensive maneuver thanks to the quantity of attack he'd launched, but it still got the job done. The man collapsed in a heap on the ground, Zabuza left standing in the face of the oncoming horde. He'd done well to cull most of them, with there being around 30 left, but between the occasional spasm of pain that ran up his arm and his limited human stamina, Zabuza didn't know how much longer he could keep this up. He also didn't care.

He broke into his run yet again, using his right arm to cut through another half dozen people with just the kunai. A duo of thugs swung their bats at him, one going high, one going low, only for Zabuza to jump through the middle like a fucked-up game of limbo. He sliced through the stomach of one of them, attempting to go for the other as soon as he landed on his feet only for his arm to be met with the smash of a baseball bat. The bones of his other arm cracked under the metallic weight of the bat, rendering his other arm useless as well. For a brief second, the poor sucker who'd broken his arm though he'd won.

Then Zabuza dropped the kunai, kicked it up into the air and then kicked it again into the man's forehead like a game of darts. With both of his arms unusable, Zabuzas drive to win only shot upwards as he began to pant like a wild animal. He quickly retrieved the kunai by kicking it out of the man's head, picking it up between his feet before tossing it into his mouth. He stared back at the rest of the crowd, not spotting a confident face amongst them. Two or three even used this pause as a chance to fully book it out of the area, dashing past a still stunned Gato. Gato, oh god, Gato. His face, if nothing else, made Zabuza happy. Just the continually decaying look of watching death approach you in real time with nothing to stop it. He stole one last look at it before charging back in.

The next few seconds (or maybe it was minutes) were a blur. Zabuza ran into the middle of the pack, ducking and weaving through every strike that came his way. He was like a hurricane, powerful and ferocious in execution. Five men went down before one could even strike, five turned to ten, ten turned twenty, twenty turned to none. Zabuza mowed done his last target, dragging the kunai across the thug's throat using nothing but his own teeth. That left Zabuza and Gato alone, surrounded by a graveyard's worth of corpses. It only made Zabuza happier to see the man's face slowly contort to grasp the reality that he would soon be joining then.

"Zabuza, you don't have to do this." Gato began to back away as Zabuza moved towards him, nervous smile on the former, devilish one on the latter.

"I think I do." He spoke clearly by slipping the kunai to the side of his mouth, the knife still glinting through the mist ridden air.

"No, you really, _really_-oh!" Gato froze up as he felt his back hit the copper railing of the bridge. There was no where left to go. Zabuza continued to march forwards, looking like a man possessed. As soon as he got into range, he sunk down to his knees in an attempt to match Gato's level.

"I'll-I'll-I'll pay you! Your whole bounty, gone just like that!" Gato spoke like he was delivering the worlds most dangerous sales pitch (which wasn't far from the truth). He held his hands up in an attempt to somehow dissuade Zabuza from gutting him like a fish. Any pleas he had been quickly silenced in favor of whimpering, as the demon of the mist lowered himself even further to the point that he was eye level with Gato.

"Gato, do you remember what I asked when I came into your office that day?"

"Yes." He trembled, hoping that somehow, if he just said what Zabuza wanted him to say, he'd get out of this unscathed.

"Really? Because I asked you if we were going to have any problems. You told me we weren't, but I'm looking at all the guys you sent to kill me and, well, _that's a big fucking problem_."

"No, uh, _yes_! I absolutely agree, I'll tell-**Uh**!" Gato tried to murmur out some appeal for forgiveness but was silenced by the feeling of the cold edge of the knife resting on his throat. No further words were needed, Zabuza's eyes said it all. Gato didn't even have time to brace.

**_Slikt!_**

The three (now standing) genin all looked away from the scene, not intent on seeing yet another dead body. At the same time, Zabuza panted with victory, his breath beginning to become short as the adrenaline started to wear off. He had no chakra, was bleeding profusely from one of his arms, and could barely stand. It would've made complete sense for him to call it a day there, to just collapse and die. But there was one more thing Zabuza need to do, one more thing before he stopped being able to do anything. On shaky legs, he began to trudge over to Haku. With the state he was in, it was basically touch and go for every step he took. He had to fully focus his mind on putting one foot in front of the other. He just needed to keep walking for a bit longer-

**_Fwomp!_**

It was too much for his body to take. Zabuza collapsed, just short of reaching Haku. Once again, it wouldn't have been laughable if Zabuza chose to die here, to give up on his strange final wish after his body had given up on him, yet he didn't. Zabuza continued to push himself forward, wedging the kunai between his mouth and the ground and using it as a makeshift cane. It was only good for a few centimeters, the imperfections in the kunais metal not being able to stay solid against the entirety of Zabuzas bodyweight, but those few precious centimeters where all he needed. Haku's eyes were wide open. The look of a person who wasn't ready to die. Zabuza recognized it well, because he'd seen it so many times before. It would be fair to say that he never really got over that day, when he'd seen Hyogi staring up at him with those eyes, Zabuza wailing on him in a fruitless attempt to get them to go away. It wasn't so fruitless now, as Zabuza lay face down next to Haku. Using everything he had left, he extended his arm upwards and with one slick flick of his finger, Haku's eyes became shut_._

It was not long after that Zabuza's pulse went flat.

* * *

Kakashi watched on from afar. It was hard to say he felt sad. Zabuza Momochi had proven himself to be a genocidal maniac and his student was an nothing more than an accomplice to said genocidal maniac, yet their deaths left him feeling rather mellow. Maybe it was true what they said, even the most unemphatic of humans could have sympathy for the devil.

"Kakashi-sensei!" Naruto yelled, running up to him flanked by the other (walking) members of team seven as well as Tazuna. Kakashi felt the sensation of rest wash over him for what was the first time since the battle against Zabuza began, although he took slight alarm when he saw the bandage wrapped around the Uzumaki's shoulder.

"Are you three feeling alright? No major injuries?"

"We're fine Kakashi." Sasuke answered for the three of them. "You should probably be looking out for yourself."

"Yeah, we didn't get banged up half as bad as you did." Naruto agreed, pointing at Kakashi's obviously broken nose and bandaged leg. The copy ninja simply smiled back at them, rubbing his hand at the back of his head. He noticed that Naruto's usual tone was more downtrodden than normal, the same sentiment being reflected in Sasuke and Sakura's facial features. It was for the best if the genin were taken back to Tazunas house as soon as possible.

"Tazuna, I reckon it's time we head back." He said, the bridge builder quickly nodding in agreement. There were very few words spoken as they walked across the field of bodies. No one said a word, either out of respect, grief or something between them. In fact, most everyone in the group attempted not to look at the bodies, that was until Kakashi found he couldn't help himself. He snatched a quick look at Haku, but in all honesty, he was barley seeing Haku anymore. The static of the chidori sizzled through his arm.

_"__I'm sorry Kakashi_." A girl's voice burrowed into his head.

The voice sent shivers down his spine.

"Are you okay sensei?" Sakura asked him, apparently noticing his jitters. Kakashi turned to her. It was a lot easier to fake a smile when you had a mask.

"I'm fine."

* * *

**_Land of Waves, 5 Days Later_**

"If you're ever near the wave again, remember, you're always welcome to stay?" Maiya explained the information for what had to have been the fifth time that morning while Tetsuji rested against a tree. Sakura (and technically Sasuke) had been conversing with them for the last fifteen minutes while they waited for Tazuna to meet them. The forest depths that overlooked the land of waves and its fancy new bridge. Sun crept through the bunches of emerald that made up the trees, sending splinters of sunlight raining down onto the group, but most importantly a singular patch of dirt.

Naruto and Kakashi both looked over the grave they'd built for Zabuza and Haku. It wasn't much of a sight, being just a singular wooden cross with the Kubikiribōchō stuck into the dirt right behind it. Any value it had was more symbolic than anything.

"Nice view isn't it." Kakashi commented, shifting his attention from the grave over to the town below. Naruto nodded in agreement.

"Yeah. I mean, it's kind of a dump but, like, it's a happy dump ya' know?" Kakashi couldn't keep in a small laugh at the Uzumaki boy's observation.

"A happy dump?"

"Yeah." Naruto smiled back brightly, only for that smile to dim slightly. Kakashi immediately took notice.

"Something on your mind?"

"Nah, not really…" Naruto said back, obviously lying. His fib was apparent that just a simple eyebrow raise from Kakashi was enough to send him off on a tirade. "Okay, kinda. It just kinda sucks how no one even knows we did anything! We don't even get a thank you from them."

Kakashi took a few seconds to come up with a reply before he sunk down to a seated position, half because he enjoyed the view and half because he wanted to talk more closely with his student.

"Naruto, have you ever heard the story of the boy with the wax wings?"

Naruto shook his head.

"There was once a boy with grand ambitions. He wanted to fly, to fly so high that if he wanted to, he would never come down. To achieve this, he worked tirelessly on a pair of wings made out of wax. After he completed their production, he climbed to the highest building he possibly could and jumped off. The towns folk gasped, but they were stupid to doubt him. He shot upwards, with the wings firmly clasped to his back. The problem was, he wanted **_everyone _**to see him fly. He got higher and higher up into the air, and he never stopped to think about what would happen when he reached his peak. The wax seat ablaze and he fell."

Naruto was now staring back at him with wide-eyed curiosity, a clear indication that Kakashi would need to explain what he was trying to say.

"The point is, chasing glories' a fool's game. Don't get caught up on people knowing what you did, when you know what you did. I think you understand that better than anyone Naruto."

Naruto's openmouthed expression quickly transformed into a big, toothy grin.

"Thanks Kakashi-sensei. Maybe I'll keep this whole, beating a super cool bloodline ninja thing on the downlow." He said back with a wink.

"Exactly, unless you see a jonin by the name of Might Guy. If you do, clearly explain to him that you are Kakashi Hatakes student and you completed what's now considered a B-Rank mission. Make sure to really, **_really _**emphasize that point."

Yet again Naruto's expression changed, this time being confused instead of happy. He had no time to ponder it though, as Tetsujis voice rung out through the forest.

"There he is!" He exclaimed, as Tazuna came walking up the leaf-covered forest path. He looked uncharacteristically joyful. He and Maiya shared some words that neither Naruto or Kakashi could hear, before the old man turned to the blond boy with a big smile on his face.

"I couldn't just let you guys leave without saying goodbye, could I?"

Naruto and Kakashi both moved in forwards to rejoin the group, and to better hear what the man was saying.

"Thanks gramps! It'll be weird going back down the path without you this time."

"Might be a little bit faster too." Tazuna joked back. "Hey, I got ya' something as a sort of parting gift. How about I name that bridge "The Great Naruto Bridge?""

Naruto's face lit up, somewhat flying in the face of the speech Kakashi had given him just a few minutes ago. "Woah! Really, I'm gonna own a bridge?!"

Tazunas face immediately twisted back to sour.

"Well you wouldn't own it- "

"But it's named after me."

"Just because it's got your name in it doesn't mean you actually own it."

"How about we split 50/50 ownership of the bridge?"

"You have literally no bargaining power in this situation…and you don't even live in the wave, why would you want to own it?!"

Naruto took a short amount of time to think of an answer the man's question, only to come up with "I think it's kinda misleading that you named the bridge after me and aren't even giving me 10% of it."

This was where Tazuna fully blew a gasket. "ALRIGHT! HOW ABOUT I NAME IT "THE GREAT SAKURA BRIDGE" INSTEAD?! WOULD THAT BE A LITTLE LESS MISLEADING?!"

"I'm fine with that." Sakura very quickly added, to Sasukes laughter, while Naruto began to backtrack.

"No, you don't have to do that." The Uzumaki quickly sputtered, not wanting to lose his mark on the wave. "I hereby renounce my ownership of the Great Naruto Bridge."

"YOU NEVER HAD ANY OWNERSHIP TO BEGIN WITH!"

Naruto just began to laugh, as Kakashi pulled him aside.

"I think it's about time for us to leave." He said, beginning to walk away with Naruto, Sasuke and Sakura in toe.

"Goodbye, take care!" Meiya waved to them, though she wasn't the only one. Tetsuji gave a curt sign from his spot on the tree while Tazuna cooled off _just _enough to let himself muster one of his own. The trio of genin waved back as they walked into the distance, though Naruto's seemed significantly more upbeat than the others. He felt genuinely happy, for what was maybe the first time. He turned back to see Sakura and Sasuke talking about something, Kakashi walking along by himself. Blue sandals stomped through the dirt as he caught up to his friends. They looked happy to see him. He was happy to see them too.

**_To lack a purpose in this world…it's a truly awful feeling._**


	13. Happy Trails I

_**Authors Note: **__This chapter was originally supposed to be one full (light-hearted) chapter but I quickly realized that it would probably end up being a little bit over 9,000 words when accounting for both set-up and the actual mission. A big 9,000 word chapter should be reserved for arc endings and chapters of significance, as most of the time, they have bad pacing and as a result, require more investment in the story than a lighter chapter can give. I want to use these "filler" chapters to develop the characters and world (even this one will have **major **__story implications) and not bore the reader to tears. That is why I've decided to turn it into a two-parter. _

* * *

Sakura gazed over her teammates with a mixture of befuddlement and amusement. They were in the reception for the Hokages office, waiting to be briefed on what Kakashi had called "an incredibly serious delivery mission". Considering his word was about as good as dirt, only Naruto actually believed that the mission they would be going on would be at all interesting, especially considering they'd only got back from toppling a tyrannical drug runner a few weeks ago. What Sakura had become focused on in this moment, however, was the fact that both Naruto and Sasuke apparently lacked the ability to sit still.

Naruto's lack of tranquility was at least somewhat normal, as he was simply subconsciously jiggling his leg as was common in a lot of boys his age. Sasuke on the other hand, twitched and shuffled every few seconds as if he was physically uncomfortable with his stillness. So, observing this, Sakura took the time to make conversation, if just as an attempt to try and get them to stop moving around.

"I like your new jacket." She said to Naruto, who smiled in return. In reality, his new jacket was incredibly similar to his old one. The only differences Sakura could make out were the white stripe that continued on from the neck area and ran along the zipper until it reached his waist. The blue decals on his shoulders now continued to wrap around his arms, the latter half of his sleeves being all blue.

"Thanks! There was too much blood on the other one, it was basically red. Five trips to the laundromat and it still wouldn't wash out." His positivity at the compliment was quickly undermined by an oncoming rant. "The guy who runs it fucking jipped me too. He wouldn't even give me a single wash for free."

Sasuke, who had previously been completely disconnected from any and all discussion, suddenly came alive. Sasuke and Naruto were friends, there was no doubt in Sakura's mind about that (especially when comparing their relationship now to their outright hostility at the academy) but the only time she'd ever seen Sasuke 100% invested in a conversation with _anyone _was when he was trying to get Naruto to verbally dig himself into a hole.

"Why would they give you any washes for free?" He asked, question intentionally reserved when considering that Naruto had just complained about a business not giving him a service for no monetary gain. Sasuke clearly wanted to see how the other boy could possibly justify this.

"Because their stupid washer didn't work, duh."

"Are you sure their washer didn't work, or was the jacket just too far beyond the point of resuscitation?"

"I don't know! They kicked me out after the fifth wash saying I was "wasting water"" The disdain for the idea was clear in Naruto's tone, his words becoming grimy with the intention of mockery.

"I feel you probably should've caught that the jacket wasn't washing properly after the second or third wash."

"_**NO!**__"_Naruto exploded with a passion that even Sasuke had not expected him to have (or at least not this quickly). "That's what they said as well, but listen, first wash? Still dirty. Second wash? A bit cleaner. Third wash? Not any cleaner, but maybe it was a dud. Fourth wash? _It was cleaner! _Fifth wash? No difference, but god was clearly dictating the cleanness by that point."

"I think it was just getting so damp you couldn't see differentiate the blood and the fabric anymore."

Sasuke knew he was right by how Naruto's previously animated face froze in place. It stayed like that for a few seconds, his baby blue eyes darting to the sides as they attempted to first comprehend what Sasuke was saying and then point out how it was wrong. Of course, the second was an impossible action because Sasuke was one-hundred percent right.

"…I should probably go say sorry to him." Naruto finally said, surprisingly not attempting to double down. The light-hearted argument suddenly turned to an awkward silence as Naruto sat on the chair just feeling kind of bad.

"_**A-hem**_." A morale-saving exhale came from a lanky blond man in the middle of the doorway. "Lord Hokage will see you now."

Naruto's happiness shot back up as he realized he'd get to see the Hokage room again. Whenever he'd go up there, he'd scope the place out and think about how he'd decorate it I he was Hokage. Note the word whenever, because it showed that Naruto, despite his half-sighted fanaticism of the job, was not the one most excited to be there. Naruto, due to his…parental situation, regularly made his way up there at least every other month. Sasuke had been a few times after the massacre, but generally didn't care for the Third or his creepy advisors' company and had stopped going. Sakura, in the meanwhile, had never as much as stayed in reception. Higher ranking clans were the ones that were regularly permitted to meet with the Hokage. Sakura wasn't even a part of a shitty clan, let alone one that would have enough sway to meet with Hiruzen.

Come to think about it, Naruto had blown off meeting the Third Hokage as if he did it all the time. She doubted he was lying. Naruto was sometimes one to brag about things he had done or things he could theoretically do, but he didn't deadass lie about things as big as this. Unlike Sasuke though, Naruto didn't belong to a clan as far as Sakura knew.

_Uzumaki_.

She thought, trying to recall if she'd ever met anyone with that surname. She mentally chanted it over and over in an attempt to try and unearth some memory of someone with that same name. Weirdly the first thing that came to her head was the surname of the Fourth.

_Namikaze_.

They were both blond…

_**HAHAHAHAHAHA!**_

For once, Inner-Sakura's thoughts perfectly synched up with her actual self's. That was a silly idea, and one she realized she should probably put to the back of her mind for now. Instead, she was focused on the spiral of red carpet that led up to the Hokage's office. It was absolutely gratuitous, leaving a small part of her wondering how much money this had cost and how much of it could have gone into Konoha's infrastructure. On the other hand, the cool paper lamps mixed with the carpet and the slightly dim lighting of the spiral ramp made her almost want to dance with how fancy it was. If only Ino could see her know…actually, Ino had been to the Hokage's office because of her dad, so scratch that.

The genins footsteps created build-up as they approached the door, Sakura almost wanting to yank it open herself before realizing that it would make her look like an idiot. Instead, she waited for the Hokages assistant to carefully grip onto the wooden handle, opening the door with an air of poise. Sakura had stars in her eyes as the first glimmers of light started to bleed out from the entrance, sure to reveal a stunning, glamorous, beautiful-

"Don't touch the scroll."

"But _grandpa!_"

"I said don't touch the scroll."

"Bu- "

"_**DON'T TOUCH THE DAMN SCROLL!"**_

Hiruzen berated outwardly at the young boy by his side, who was seemingly undeterred by the screaming old man. Sakura's gleaming admiration dwindled slightly at the sight, but it couldn't be undercut too much. The Hokages room was unquestionably beautiful. Ancient scrolls, antique and sleek in their design adorned the walls while a large, marble fireplace (not currently lit) sat quaintly one of the rooms walls. At the head of the room, was a large glass door that doubled as a window. It opened up to a balcony which gave the Hokage a view of nearly all of Konoha. Sakura could only imagine how it would feel to look over the railing, watching the populous as they went through the motions of their day to day. They'd look like nothing more than ants from up here.

Meanwhile, Naruto and Sasuke were more focused on the argument that was going on between the child and the Hokage. Sasuke also noticed Kakashi standing at the old man's side, completely composed despite the fact that the most powerful man in the village was currently having a shouting match with a literal eleven-year old.

"Who knew being the Hokage made you a lame old man. I don't even know why I want to be one now, if all you do all day is admire scrolls that aren't even in the right language. At least get a translator or somethin'!" The boy shouted back. He had a long blue scarf that stretched down to his feet as well as a light-yellow button up shirt. His spiky brown hair was contained within the confines of a grey headgear.

"Hilarious. I'm sure if you fail the genin exam there's a nice career as a stand-up comic lined up for you." Hirzuen grunted back, attempting not to slip back down to the child's level. "Someone graffitied the wall across from the building. There's a paint bucket downstairs, make yourself useful and trace over it."

"What if I don't wanna?" The boy snapped back.

"Then I'll have no choice but to fill your parents in on how much of a pain you've been today. Something tells me that you'll be getting an earful _**at the least**_."

The boy's face shriveled up at the realization that bitching out the Hokage may not, in fact, be a good idea. He sharply turned on his heel and began to walk out of the room, grumbling insults to himself so Hiruzen couldn't possibly hear them and relay them back to his parents.

"Lord Hokage, Team Seven are here to see you." The blond assistant said, raising a hand up.

"Thank you, Mao." The Hokage replied in a tone so residually hostile, it completely went against the point of even saying thank you. Nevertheless, Mao stood in place, holding the door open for the younger boy who was trudging along. His face was buried into his scarf, the blue fabric absorbing every curse word he threw at the Hokage. It looked like he was going to keep walking without even acknowledging the presence of the Team Seven but as soon as his eyes meet Naruto's, he stopped.

"Hey, are you Naruto Uzumaki?" He said, not sounding quite as pissed off as he had before. Naruto, conversely, lit up at the recognition, looking down at the boy with a smile. Sakura and Sasuke both couldn't help but grin themselves. As boisterous and essentially anti-social as he was, Naruto was at least good with kids.

"Yeah."

"Grandpa tells me about you sometimes. You sound like a total moron who's never gonna' become Hokage."

But sometimes kids weren't good with Naruto. The boy in question's facial expression switched from ecstatic to "sour candy" in an instant.

"Yeah, well you sound like a dumb little idiot so I don't give a shit what you say." Naruto fired back, harshly.

"Oh yeah?" The young child shot back with a self-aggrandizing smirk. Clearly repeating what the other person had just said was the peak of intellectual debate in his mind.

"Yeah! So stop bothering the old man and go clean the walls jackass." Sasuke and Sakura witnessed a once in a lifetime occurrence. Something so magical that both couldn't help but feel dizzy with the sheer improbability that hung with it. Maybe it was because his opponent was the ninja-equivalent of a grade schooler, but Naruto Uzumaki had successfully managed to win an insult contest. The kid immediately stuffed his face back into his scarf and stormed off in anger.

"Sorry about him, you three." Hirzuen grumbled, resting in his seat with his hand clenching the brim of his hat. "That's my grandson, Konohamaru. I'm babysitting him while his parents are away. As you can see, he's developed something of an attitude problem over the last few months."

The Third quickly realized he was being informal upon watching the genin stand around awkwardly.

"Please, take a seat."

The trio followed his orders, filling up the three seats that had been placed in front of his desk. From where they were seated, they were gifted with a perfect look at the portraits of the past Hokages that sat just above the sliding glass door. Each one had been meticulously painted, to the point where they almost resembled photographs more than paintings. Sakura had to physically hold a laugh in when she saw what Hiruzen had looked like when he had first become Hokage. In comparison to the shape of his head was basically an upside-down triangle now, he almost looked _chubby_ in the portrait.

"…Sakura." Kakashi's voice snapped her out of her thoughts. The way her name had been pronounced implied that this was not the first time he'd called out for her in the last few seconds. Her eyes darted back towards him with an embarrassed look embezzled in them.

"Yes?"

"Are you still with us?"

Sakura nodded, too mortified to actually say anything. Hiruzen quickly brough the focus back to him, as he neatly opened a drawer, temporarily scuffling through it, before retrieving an old, worn photograph sealed inside what looked like either glass or plastic.

"Do you three know what this is?"

"T-that's the first photo ever taken, right?" Sakura said, in an attempt to redeem herself for being scolded earlier.

"Correct." Hiruzen replied, holding the casing up higher so all of Team Seven could see it. It depicted a small girl, no older than three, presenting a chain of flowers between her hands to a kneeling Hashirama Senju. The Hokage was positively beaming as he laid the chain around his neck, small white petals falling down to his feet. "See, Hashirama, being the…man of sympathy that he is, cemented the historic moment by asking what her favorite food was. She said tea and he immediately rewarded her with a lifetime supply of it."

Hiruzen stopped his sentence to let out a loud sigh, indicating that the definition of "lifetime" supply was being emphasized further and further every year.

"We deliver them in bulk packages twice a year. Due to scheduling conflicts, we're running dry on any ninja that can be trusted to deliver the cargo-"

Sasuke immediately translated that in his head as "we're running dry of any above-genin ninja that would be dumb enough to not fake sick when asked"

"We've entrusted you with this mission. After that mishap in the land of waves, a cooldown will do you good."

Naruto immediately crossed his arms, predictably annoyed that they'd be forced to do something as menial as this, yet he didn't' actually say anything about it. Instead, he just started tapping his foot against the floor, frustrated. Sasuke tilted his head back against the chair, clearly echoing his friend's sentiment. Sakura said nothing.

"Kakashi, if you could take them from here, I've got some papers that need to be filled out."

"Of course, Lord Hokage."

Kakashi quietly led the three out of the office. As they began to trudge down the carpet-lined spiral, he handed Sakura a slip of paper.

"Here. Take this to the pharmacy on sekira street. Hand it to the lady at the counter and she'll retrieve the cargo for deployment. Head back here and we'll have your transportation ready for departure at your earliest convince."

"Why are you using fancy Anbu terms to describe giving an old lady tea?" Sasuke asked him, picking up on his teachers' stoic tone (which almost immediately dropped after it was pointed out). Kakashi turned to him with a bored expression.

"I'm just trying to make this fun for you three. You're going to need to cling to any sense of enjoyment you can with what's coming up." The statement was foreboding, enough so that Sasuke immediately picked up on it. He then proceeded to ask the question that would serve to explain Kakashi's ominous framing as well as provide useful information for the future.

"How long is the trip going to take Kakashi?" Sasuke asked, teeth gritting above baited breath. Kakashi's eye became deadly serious.

"Six hours one way, twelve for the full-trip."

Sakura and Sasuke both completely froze. As in they just stopped, stopped walking, stopped talking, in fact, they nearly stopped properly thinking as well. Any and all of their cognitive ability was dedicated to picturing the number of things they could've done in twelve hours that would now be spent delivering tea to an old lady. Kakashi's gaze quickly became apologetic as he witnessed the two genin completely seize up. Naruto was the only one who spoke, practically reading word-for-word the statement that was running through his squamate's heads as well.

"What the fuck?"

* * *

As it turned out, the pharmacy's isles were well cleaned and the store itself was actually quite aesthetically pleasing. The walls had a nice orange polish, and the waiting chairs were well furnished. All in all, it was incredibly well designed. This didn't mean that it wasn't completely unpleasant to be in. The stench of sickness was still discernable, despite the numerous scented candles and unwrapped soaps that had been left conveniently unwrapped in an attempt to cover it up. This attempted smokescreen only amplified that pungent smell of sick to the point where it would transfer to most people and make them sick. Truly a vicious cycle.

Sakura made the herculean effort to not grab at her nose as she walked up to the counter. Her teammates didn't even attempt to replicate this, Naruto's face sinking into the frill of his jacket while Sasuke needn't even try to hide his held nose. Sakura tried not to take note of them as she walked up to the lady at the counter. She seemed nice enough, obviously young, with a large mane of brown hair flowing down her shoulders. As Naruto and Sasuke took seats at the waiting are, Sakura made her way up to the counter, clutching the small slip of paper between her hands.

"What do you want?" The lady said before the younger girl could muster anything even resembling words. Those words were all Sakura need to hear to deduce that this lady would rather be literally _**anywhere**_, than working in a pharmacy. Who could really blame her? With the advent of medical ninjutsu (and as a result, medic-nin) the shinobi world had never felt a need to invest anything into modern medicine. Natural remedies were what was prescribed for lower-level illnesses, the shelves being lined with ration pills and herb solutions.

"Uh, someone told me to hand you this." Sakura stumbled through her words, meekly holding out the slip of paper towards the woman. In contrast to the meager offering, the woman's hand moved so quick Sakura didn't even notice it had shifted until the "prescription" was out of her own. The lady's dark brown eyes scanned over the page, before darting towards Sakura.

"Do you have I.D?"

"Yeah." Sakura reached into her pocket, slipping a finger into her wallet and managing to excavate her I.D from the compartment. She promptly handed it to the other woman, who repeated the snatch process before once again looking back down at her.

"I'm going to ask you a series of questions. If you don't answer in three seconds, this I.D will be seized and you will be charged with identity theft."

"What?!" Sakura asked, the situation going from zero to one hundred in the blink of an eye.

"What's your first name?" The lady took no notice of the stammering girl in front of her, immediately rapid-firing questions. Sakura was so taken off guard, however, that she struggled to give an answer. One second passed followed by a second second which was then followed by a third seco-

"Sakura!" She finally blurted, inadvertently beginning to look like the textbook example of "The test is today and I forgot to study" (which was the exact opposite of what you wanted to look like when the threat of identity theft was hanging over your head)

"Last name?"

"Haruno."

"What colors your hair in this photo?"

"Pink."

"Date of birth?"

"Eleventh of march."

"Father's name?"

Sakura became visibly rigid at this. "How would you even verify that? It doesn't say that on the thing"

"Just answer the question Miss."

Sakura steadied herself into a glare, as seconds began to tick down on the clock. The other lady looked down at her sternly, a Mexican standoff justified by no real reason beginning to break out. Sasuke and Naruto both stared on in confusion as Sakura seemingly refused to answer the most benign question ever asked. She made it all of two seconds before caving.

"...Hayato Haruno."

"Mother's name?"

"Yuamochi Haruno"

The lady gave looked over Sakura one last time before handing her back the I.D and laying the slip of paper into a small light blue basket next to the register. For around fifteen seconds, everything was calm until the lady was forced to interact with who was apparently her co-worker.

"_**HEY! DASON!" **_She _screamed_ at the curtains behind her, obviously attempting to get the attention of the other person without actually interacting with them. Unfortunately, her hopes were dashed as a bald man with a gruff voice emerged through the curtain, clearly not taking to her effort at communication.

"What? What? What the fuck do you want?" His voice was accented, heavy in its tone. Sasuke recognized it from their time in the land of waves, and he'd never heard it here, which meant it was most likely derived from the mist.

"These kids just handed in the prescription for the tea order."

"Literally half the fucking meds we give out are comprised of tea, gonna' need you to be a bit more specific."

"The big tea order we give out every six months. This was implied when I said "the tea order" wasn't it, because I wouldn't just call Lan from down the road wanting some for her son's sore throat "_the_ tea order" would I dumbass?"

"Don't get fucking snappy with me."

"I'll get as snappy as I want, bitch."

"Then get snappy and read out what tea you need me to fill the bag up with since you're too goddamn lazy to walk even an inch behind the curtain."

Naruto and Sakura stared on in confusion at the blatant workplace aggression that was unfolding before there very eyes. Sasuke, in the meanwhile, stared down at the floor, lips folding over themselves as he tried to keep steady. It wasn't necessarily the actual argument that was about to make him laugh, more the sight of Sakura awkwardly standing at the counter while the two morons that were apparently in charge came one insult away from punching each other in the face. That wasn't hyperbole either, with the way the lady was bracing her shoulder, Sasuke suspected he could count _the seconds _until she straight up decked Dason.

"I need six months' worth of the 2845 mixed blend. _Quickly_."

"You just said you needed six months' worth of tea and then you tell me to do it quickly. The fuck you think I am, the fourth?"

"Just shut up and get the tea."

For some reason, the man finally decided to cut his losses and do as she said (though not without audibly grumbling further insults under his breath including "dumb bitch" and "probably got the fucking order wrong"). Peace temporarily reined again as the girl employee simply began crossing her arms. This reign lasted for around three seconds, until Naruto found he couldn't help himself. There was a strange toy that hung on the shelves next to the waiting chairs. It was pink and fluffy with a little bell on what was supposed to be its head. It's existence in a pharmacy was questionable to say the least, but Naruto didn't care about that. If his hand was made of metal, this pink, vaguely phallic-shaped toy was a high-strength magnet. With a smile plastered on his face, he swiped at it harshly, which brought forth a satisfying "_**ding!" **_sound.

"Don't touch that." The counterwoman sternly instructed, only for Naruto to look back at her with a glare.

"Why not?"

"Because you shouldn't be playing with the toys on the shelves. No one does that."

"If you're not meant to play with it, why is it here in the first place?" Naruto replied, with what he clearly thought was airtight logic.

"Sir, that's a toy for babies."

Naruto looked back at the packaging, which was now, in hindsight, quite obviously labeled "Great for ages three and under". He sat there looking at the package for a long while, almost to the point where his squamate's began to think he'd had some sort of brain injury. All in all, it was around forty seconds before he snapped back to life.

"Yeah, it was actually crooked on the shelves, I was just straightening it back up." His excuse was such a blatant lie that the lady simply pretended she hadn't heard him (which, to be fair, was a lot easier than actually humoring the line of thinking and having to get into a dialogue about it.)

A few minutes passed, with no one willing to say anything. Sasuke was naturally quiet, Sakura felt too awkward standing there to try and make conversation, Naruto was still recovering from the embarrassment of being caught playing with a toy made for infants, and the woman at the counter simply didn't want to interact with any of them. The only sound that could be heard where Dason's constant shoveling of tea and the bustle of the Konoha streets muted through the walls. Eventually, one of those halted completely as the sound of shoveling stopped in the place of loud footsteps coming down from the backroom. The curtains flicked open, earning a wide-eyed stare from the three teens.

That was a lot of tea.

Six big bags worth in fact. Six _really big bags_. Six _really big bags _as in "same height as any one of the genin" big. Dason had a sick, sadistic glint in his eyes. He wasn't necessary taking pleasure in the fact that the three students would be going through pain as much as he was taking pleasure in the fact that the concept of that pain existed and was not going to be befalling him today.

"Here's your tea."

Sasuke stood up from his chair, joining Sakura's side as they both tried to figure just how the three of them would transport the bags back to Kakashi. They could each drag two along with them, one with each hand, but they doubted any of them would be able to carry more than one on their own. No, the best idea would be to stack them up into two piles of three. Naruto was probably the physical strongest, so he could do a majority of the legwork pushing them along the ground, while Sasuke dragged them from the front and Sakura consistently the structure along the sides. Yeah, that was probably the best ide-

_**Ding!**_

_**FOOMFOOMFOOMFOOMFOOMFOOMFOOM!**_

The two's train of thought was quickly derailed as they turned around to see Naruto haphazardly stuffing his hands in his pockets while a whole shelf full of items having been dominoed onto the ground. It took literally two seconds to figure out what had happened with the pink baby toy obviously being the main offender in the complete and utter collapse of the shelf's wares. Now, there was only one person anywhere near the shelf, that being Naruto, who everyone in the room had just seen attempt to make it look like his hands weren't near the scene of the crime. Suffice to say, this case was a real "whodunit" scenario.

The boy in question was content to just pretend no one was looking at him when the exact opposite was true. It wasn't until his eyes accidentally darted to the side and met with one of the four pairs that were staring back at him that he breathed in to begin his response. You may be wondering what masterstroke he countered the silent accusation with, what logical opus he mustered. The statement that either bleached his name of all wrongdoing associated with it or clearly lay out his actions as a consequence of some greater purpose. Here it was.

"Look, it was _really _crooked okay?"


	14. Happy Trails II

"Fuck, that stinks." Naruto grumbled as he loaded what had to be the last bag of tea into the storage of the wagon. Whoever had organized the transport had clearly not thought that they were going to return with one massive bag instead of six slightly less massive bags. It didn't help that the stench from the tea was so absolutely foul that it managed to transport Sasuke and Naruto onto the same wavelength.

"It's turmeric, old people's favorite flavor." Sasuke practically wretched on the end of his sentence. "All they do is drink this shit and sit around while their bones and brains rot."

It was obvious that his anger was overruling his logic, his tone practically coated in frustration and annoyance. These emotions never simmered, even as he and Naruto finally managed to lock the hatch and made their way over to Kakashi and Sakura. It was then that Sasuke and Naruto finally got a better look what they'd have to be sitting in for the next twelve hours.

"Nice ride, isn't it?" Kakashi said. While "nice" may have been a stretch, Sasuke could imagine much, _much_ worse. From what he could see, the wagon was made up of three main parts. The first was a large wood frame, similar in design to a pallet with protruding guard rails on its sides. Just going off the obvious gaps in between the strips of wood, Sasuke guessed it couldn't have been at all heavy. Even the large wheels that were attached to its side were obviously hollowed out to lessen the strain put on the towing animals. At the head of this section sat a smooth wood grip which allowed the operator to attach further carts. Only two had been attached, one being the makeshift tea storage and the other being what was effectively the "front" of the wagon. Like the pallet strapped to the back, it had purposely been undersized to prevent the three horses towing the thing from having to slow down. In the front, sat a man with long white hair that zig zagged into separate strands down his back. Each one strangely resembled a lightning bolt.

"Who's this guy?" Naruto asked, eyeing the blank faced man from afar. He wore a long-sleeved blue shirt as well as a pair of sunglasses.

"That's Dao, he's your driver." Kakashi responded, flashing a thumbs up to the man, who must've caught it in the corner of his eye, as he immediately flashed one back. "He's a trade summoner."

"A what?" Sakura said back, not recognizing the term.

"Someone who uses summoning jutsu as a tool to get work. Obviously, Dao is proficient in working with horses, be it riding or navigation. He's also deaf and possibly mute, so it's not like he had many job options available." Kakashi answered, walking over to the back of the wagon and retrieving three sharp metal sticks that lay in it,

"What are those?" Naruto asked, everyone being somewhat confused as to why the cart had sharp metal sticks that looked like they'd be used to maneuver wood around a fire place just lying around.

"You'll be riding down near the west Konoha border, where you may encounter scale snakes."

Sakura's eyebrow raised at the mention of the animal. "I thought those were just a made-up animal that parents told their kids about to try and get them to stop crying. Aren't they attracted to sorrow or something like that?"

"Oh, there are certainly real but their sensory capabilities, and really abilities in general, have been grossly overstated. In reality, their just big snakes who can _kind of _sense chakra. If you do see one slithering along next to you, just give them a wack, like this- "Kakashi thrust the metal rod outwards at Sasuke so quickly, the Uchiha boy thought he may have actually been stabbed in the face for a split-second. It didn't help that even when he realized he hadn't been, Kakashi continued to hold the rod at near eyelevel for an awkwardly long amount of time.

"Can you get the stick out of my face please?" He asked, tone so rhetorical it rendered the "can you" pointless. Kakashi nevertheless complied, stowing the metal back near his own leg.

"Sorry, you just have incredibly snakelike features. It was throwing me off."

Naruto (and to a lesser extent Sakura) both laughed at this, while Sasuke just made an expression that signified that he was not particularly impressed.

"Anyway, you guys should really be going. It's going to be a long one." Kakashi's almost cheery tone didn't match the context of his words, that context being that the three genin were going to be stuck on a pallet for the next twelve hours. Following his orders, the trio hopped up over the sides of the pallet before becoming seated. The pallet was wide, with the safety sides coming up to around Naruto's abdomen if he sat cross-legged. It was also raised upwards off the ground, presumably so the aforementioned snakes couldn't slither over into it. One more feature it boasted, was the fact that, between the "big enough to lose a coin" gaps separating the planks and strange splintery material that those same planks were made up of, the pallet was _**really fucking uncomfortable**_. By the time any one of the genin could come to that realization though, it was too late, as Kakashi signed to Dao that it was time to leave which was swiftly followed by the pallet beginning to move.

* * *

Two hours had passed and the sun was hotter than they had expected it to be. Maybe it was because they'd previously been riding through a forest, so they'd been sheltered from its righteous warmth, but it was undeniable that the humidity in the air was annoying. What was even more annoying, was how it wasn't even _**that **_annoying. It was hot, obviously, but a weird a middle ground of hot that capped any emotional turmoil at just under "slightly frustrated". Of course, the existence of this cap only served to contradict itself. You couldn't get mad at how hot it was. For example, Naruto didn't even care enough about the heat to fully discard his jacket. He'd zipped it open, sure, but the heat had never been so intense as to get him fully shedding layers. It was like a fucked up genjutsu, the weather being warm enough to annoy you but not quite warm enough to make you realize what you needed to do to cool yourself down.

Sakura let out a loud groan as she leaned back against the side of the pallet, only to sit back up again as she realized leaning against heated wood in humid weather wasn't a good idea. Conversation had been slow since they hit the one-hour mark, which was to be expected. Sakura was the spitting definition of socially awkward when she was around people her age, and she was the most communally-aware out of the three of them by a country mile. Naruto only added to conversations that involved him, never starting them (something she'd noticed him do since his second year in the academy) and she was pretty sure, if she tried really hard, she could get a decent guess of the exact number of words Sasuke had said since they had left Konoha.

In a frantic search for something to talk about, she finally rested on Naruto's tapping. His finger continually tapped against the side of the pallet, though it was not without reason. Due to the hollowness of the transport, even the smallest tap was equaled with a sound, which Naruto used to create a rhythm. The quickness of his tapping made Sakura realize that there was no way he was just going off the cuff.

"You like music Naruto?" She asked, knowing the answer before he even spoke due to the smile that broke out on his face.

"Yeah. My- "He paused for a second, correcting what he was going to say. Both Sasuke and Sakura couldn't help but find it suspicious, though the latter was more focused on trying to get some discussion out of him to pay it any mind. "-I have some old records at my place. I haven't listened to a ton of them but sometimes I'll put one on, ya know?"

What Naruto neglected to mention, was the fact that he didn't listen to the frankly massive collection of records he had because he'd once broken one by placing it down on the record player and had been living in fear ever since. This wasn't that uncommon, records in the shinobi world were made out of wood and covered with tactically drawn carvings. When the player needle scrapped over these carvings, sound would be uprooted. However, shinobi record players were a lot of things, precise being not one of them, which lead to constant scraping, cracking or other times just full on dismantling. Suffice to say, "home music" was a niche, and Sakura found it interesting that Naruto would have any.

"Can you sing?" Sakura joked, only to get a half-serious response.

"A bit." Naruto laughed back.

"Sing a song then"

Naruto's lips and eyes shifted to the left, as the Uzumaki boy began to try and remember a song that he could sing with any degree of competency. There was a small amount of silence before his facial features switched back into his usual grin.

"Okay." He tapped against the wood a few times to get himself into rhythm, giggles indicating that he wasn't taking this at all seriously (which was for the best). Then he launched into song. "_I'm on this road…it's the fastest road I've ever known. Snow's falling, trees grow through though. I guess it's just another spring in __**Kumo**__" _

It was a good thing that Naruto became a ninja and not a singer. That was one of the main takeaways Sasuke had as he listened to the other boy's voice crack like a vase being tossed off the Hokage tower. The other realization was something much larger. While Sakura just kind of laughed at the sheer act of Naruto singing, Sasuke actually took the time to listen to exactly what he was saying. Kumo was short for Kumogakure which was the capital city of the land of lightning. The leaf had an awful relationship with them, only second to the mist in "countries most villagers would sick a tailed beast on if they had a chance" and even that mist hatred could be chalked up to recency bias unlike the hatred of the lightning. No big-name musician would dare play a song that praised Kumo in any capacity (certainly not the one displayed in Naruto's lyrics) and no small name musician would be put onto a record. This left two options:

1- Naruto had heard the song at a live show, in either a music venue (hard to find) or a bar that he snuck into.

2- Naruto had a Kumo record in his apparently vast collection.

One was unlikely, as Naruto was far too uncultured to actively seek out music and two just opened up more questions. There was no doubt in Sasukes mind that Naruto thought Kumo was made up just for this song. In the academy, he'd observed Naruto label the five great shinobi countries completely randomly (except for the fire) before getting frustrated and leaving it to his partner. Why on earth would he have this record? Wait, why would he have any records at all?

"What's with the face Sasuke? Are you jealous of how good my signing is?" The piercing sound of Naruto's voice derailed his train of thought completely.

"I'm the exact opposite of jealous of your signing." You could tell it took a couple seconds for Naruto to grasp what had just been said, as his smug grin stayed on his face for way too long after he'd just been insulted. As soon as it clicked, however, it practically melted in the place of a pout.

"Let's see you sing then!"

"Yeah, Sasuke, sing." Sakura managed to join in before letting out a laugh at the sight of Sasuke signing with any amount of emotion.

"No." Sasuke slipped up with his response. His distaste for the idea became a little bit _too_ clear, to the point that even Naruto could pick up on it. It wasn't everyday that he found something exploitable to tease Sasuke with, so to not pursue this further would be, in Naruto's mind, a wasted opportunity. He leaned in towards Sasuke, ill-intentioned grin on his face.

"Come on dude, we'll do a duet. It'll be fun"

"Nope."

"Sing, _I'm on this road- "_

"I'm not on this road- "

"No, _I'm on this road-_ "

"I'm not going to sing."

"Yeah yeah…look, he wants to sing." Naruto pointed a finger at Sasukes face.

"No, I don't."

"He does."

"I really don't."

"Look at him, look at him!"

"I don't want to sing."

"C'mon, _I'm on this- "_

"Shut the fuck up, Naruto! I don't want to sing your _stupid fucking song_!" Sasuke finally grew tired of the other boy's insistence, delivering his words with a venomous tone. In response, Naruto just leaned back against the wood, crossing his arms and looking to the side. Usually when Sasuke insulted him, he'd either become comically angry or just laugh it off. This time he did neither.

"Fine." The situation's playfully light air had been sapped in a matter of seconds, much to Sakuras dismay. She looked over at Sasuke, who's face had dropped ever so slightly in actually seeing Naruto legit pissed off. This drop was very quickly nullified into an indignant glare as soon as he saw Sakura staring back at him. Sakura wasn't willing to drop this one though, eyes beading up in a stern look back. They had ten hours left, she was not going to spend those ten hours with the two of them taking jabs at each other. She also maybe, sorta, kinda, liked her two friends being friends as well. Her and Sasuke glares collided with each other. It was a tense battle, neither side wanting to give up. Sakura had objectively correct righteousness on her side, but Sasuke had something even more powerful, and that was attempted prevention of self-embarrassment. After probably ten seconds of what was basically a serious staring contest, Sasuke sighed and looked to the ground, admitting defeat.

"Naruto, I'm sorry I didn't want to sing your stupid fucking song. It's really hot and I don't feel like keeping a tune."

The Uzumaki's face turned from angry to happy so quickly, Sakura had to ask herself if he had actually been angry in the first place.

"It's okay, I get it." Naruto said with a small smile. "It's hard because your singings not as good as mine, so you'll know you'll get overshadowed."

"That's not true." Sasuke suddenly felt the anger that had immediately bubbled up again. In an attempt to send it back down, he changed the subject. "Ah, was there really no one else the third could get to do this?"

This question was mostly brought on by the sly heat that had gradually been creeping up Sasukes neck. He looked over the side of the pallet, past Dao's compartment in hopes of finding some forest or even just a few trees up ahead. If there were any coming up, they were still a while away as anything up ahead was all grasslands. Spruce, barren, dry grasslands.

"Ah, I know." Sakura groaned. "He's the _worst_ Hokage."

Sasuke turned to her with a teasing look. "Careful, you're about a step away from treason."

"Shut up." She joked back with a laugh.

"Yeah. Everyone knows the Fourth's the worst Hokage." Naruto added, his statement being so bizarre yet so serious. When an annual survey was done, Minato Namikaze consistently held a strong 78% approval rating post-death with a strong 83% at the peak of his reign. The only Hokage with a higher approval rating was Hashirama Senju, the first, with an unbelievable 97% (though it could be argued that this rating was high because of a mix of the lite-propaganda that was shown to more recent generations and blind nostalgia from the older ones). With all this in mind, Naruto just dropping what he said like it was fact threw both of his teammates through a loop (especially since Tobirama had been made the sacrificial symbol of Konoha's collective failings, so there literally couldn't have been a more obvious choice.)

"Are you serious?" Sasuke said, even his monotone being infected with a small burst of laughter. Naruto didn't share his humor.

"I'm a billion percent serious."

"Why? Everyone likes the Fourth" Sakura said, confused. Naruto looked at her like she was the dumbest person in the whole world.

"Uhhhh, **no**. The fourth is a loser and an idiot, and, like, a total moron who probably didn't even know what math's was which means he probably couldn't even run the country and someone else did it for him because he was such an idiot and couldn't even _**read**_!"

Naruto shouted back; way too loud for the situation at hand. If the driver hadn't been deaf, Sakura and Sasuke would've tried to shoosh him.

"Under the Fourth we had the strongest economy in the five nations though. I don't think he ever did anything that bad." Sakura responded, correctly pointing out how dumb Naruto's ad-hominin attacks were.

"Two words. Nine-Tailed Fox!" Naruto shot back.

"That's three words." Sasuke corrected.

"No, 'cause the hyphen in the middle."

"It's still three words."

"It is. And also, he _sealed _the nine-tails, who do you think could have done any better in that situation?" Sakura asked him.

"Old man third would've kicked the nine-tails ass before it could even kill anyone!" Naruto barked back at her, completely illogically. It was so dumb that it gave Sakura pause as she tried to wrap her head around what he said. Surely, he didn't mean it, surely, she'd misheard it. After around five seconds of pure befuddlement, Sasuke (who was equally as shocked but slightly more coherent) took the words right out of her mouth.

"The Third fought the nine-tails. He was there"

Naruto's eyes widened as he realized how dumb what he just said was, as well as how it completely contradicted himself by implying value in whoever dealt with the nine-tails better made them the greater Hokage. The next few words came out in short but deafening breaks of speech.

"No…I meant…I meant…. I meant Old Man Third in his prime, so Young Man Third." Any other person would've rolled over with their argument defeated but Naruto immediately sprung to attack. "And don't say The Fourth doesn't suck, because it's objectively true that he sucks, and he's an idiot so don't even…_let's talk about something else now dattebayo!"_

Naruto ended his rant with what could only be described as the most aggressive conversation changer ever.

"Okay." Sakura said, still dumbfounded by Naruto's massive yet seemingly unfounded hatred for the Fourth Hokage. With the sheer rage the boy was putting out, you could have sworn The Fourth destroyed his house and killed his dog or something to that extent but Naruto's gripes against him consisted entirely of _"he couldn't read (citation needed)" _and _"he didn't beat the nine-tails in one move"_

She looked at him with a questioning glance.

* * *

The sun had begun to fade a few hours later. Blue skys had been replaced with orange sunbaths, as the blank night began its approach. Naruto thought it was beautiful, or it would've been if the universe had decided that the three of them _now _deserved some forest for their troubles. It wasn't nearly as pretty as it could've been had they been in the grasslands, but looking up at the slowly fading sunset through the trees wasn't the worst. Each genin was lying on their back, every so often shifting to their side due to the unrest that was caused by the gaps.

"Nice sunset." Sakura idly said, as the rays of light bounced through the treetops.

"It's like the night is eating the daytime." Naruto observed. He wasn't wrong, the sky was almost completely dark but still illuminated by the light beyond the horizon line. "How many hours until we get there?"

"Probably around three." Sasuke replied, his response earning a loud groan from the other boy.

"I'm gonna go to sleep." Naruto said, earning a bizarre look from both of the other teens.

"What time do you normally go to sleep?" Sakura asked him.

"Eleven-ish."

"Oh yeah, I got to bed at that time as well." Sakura said, blatantly lying through her teeth as Inner-Sakura sniggered at her.

"Naruto, it's probably six thirty at max, if you go to bed now it'll kill your sleep schedule." Sasuke correctly pointed out.

"Yeah, yeah! Wake me up when we get there." Naruto completely sandbagged the advice, flopping over to his side and mushing his face against the nearest pallet-wall. He wouldn't even notice the three hours flying by.

* * *

He did notice them. Not only did he notice them, he unintentionally forced everyone else to as well. At around thirty minutes, Naruto had received a splinter in his forehead and had begun working tirelessly to try and dig it out. Neither Sakura or Sasuke were all too pleased at having to share their room with a person who was trying to rip a splinter out of his head, so they tried to convince Dao to let them off at the nearest stream so they could try and rinse it out of his head. Dao had pretended not to understand them, which lead to Naruto attempting to forcibly claw the splinter out of his head, which then lead to _bleeding. _Seeing the blood rushing down the boy's head, Dao had immediately agreed to pull over at the next stream. Twenty minutes passed before they were close to another one, ten minutes quickly being added on as Sakura and Sasuke both tried to wash the splinter out (Naruto almost falling into the river in the process).

All in all, their pit stop served to intensify the pain that it felt as Dao rode down the unbeaten path. If there was thirty minutes until they reached the old woman's house, they'd be annoyed because if Naruto hadn't decided nap time was a prerogative, they'd only be twenty minutes away. If they were twenty minutes away, the same thing would happen. It should be said though, maybe the agony of delay made Sakura touching down against the soil for the first time in six hours all the more exhilarating (Not that she could enjoy it, as Naruto and Sasuke wasted no time in telling her she was taking too long in delivering the tea to the doorstep.) The woman's cottage was nice and quaint. It was white and strangely orb shaped, surrounded by fencing. Just from looking at it, Sakura guessed it couldn't have held more than four or five rooms. Trees lined up besides the house, leaves tipped with a strange purple coloration that Sakura hadn't seen before, even in picture books. Every few seconds, a faint breeze would run through the area, scattering the purple leaves out like cherry blossoms.

With some help from Naruto and Sasuke, she dragged the tea bags over to the doorstep, blades of grass crunching beneath her sandals. Doorbells in the shinobi world were incredibly primitive, being a small, bell-connected string that stuck out of the door. It would ring the aforementioned bell when pulled, alerting the home owner to the team's presence. Sakura did as so, pulling the surprisingly ungiving string forward and then releasing it. small _thump _was heard, Sakura quickly shooing Naruto and Sasuke back to the cart as the old woman's footsteps echoed through the halls. After a couple of seconds, the door swung open.

The old lady was shorter than Sakura expected. Being no giant herself, Sakura easily towered over her to the point where she could probably knock her over with a slight slip of her hand. She had fogged up glasses and white hair that stuck upwards in a thick bob that somewhat slumped down over her forehead. Her face was old and wrinkled, though not as much as you would expect considering her age,

"Hello?"

"Hello!" Sakura smiled back, sweetly. "I'm Sakura Haruno, a kunoichi from the hidden leaf. I'm hear to deliver your tea."

The old woman smiled back.

"Thank you so much dear. I have to admit I was running a bit thin over last few days." She walked past Sakura, so short that each step she took would be equivalent to a tip-toe from the genin. Her seasoned eyes glanced over the tea bags, offering a gentle hand up to the fabric. She turned back to Sakura with a smile.

"So you're a kunoichi?"

"Yes ma'am. I started about a month ago."

"Good girl. Those your teammates over there?" She motioned to the cart that held Naruto and Sasuke, the former awkwardly taking her small gesture as a sign to wave as hard as possible.

"Yep."

"They look like a couple of idiots." The old lady said back, smile indicating that this was nothing more than banter. Sakura quickly reciprocated the same tone, though her gaze was marred with an obvious positivity as she looked back at them.

"Yeah, they are."

Another breeze blew by, sending Sakura's hair flapping in the wind. The old lady turned to her in time with it.

"You wanna come in for a drink?"

Sakura's smile drooped a bit, despite the fact that she normally would've taken the offer. The old lady seemed extremely sweet, but she didn't want to impose on this woman's time. She also really wanted to go home and go to bed.

"Ma'am, you don't have to-"

"No, no, you drove six hours to get here, you're gonna drive six hours back. Why not have a drink huh?"

Sakura stood there for a second, looking at the woman before looking back at Naruto and Sasuke. Upon seeing that the pair was more than occupied playing what looked like a bizarre frankenstined combination of rock, paper, scissors and just punching each other, Sakura realized that she could take a drink break.

"Yeah, okay."

"Great! I've got some stories to tell you cause being a kunoichi is tough work! I'll say that- "The woman's face suddenly dropped. There was no discernable reason at first. She had walked past the tea bags, and her face had gone from happy to unhappy in a split-second. The shift was so sudden that it took Sakura around ten seconds to, one, realize she'd stopped moving on purpose and second, become disgusted.

"Is something wrong?" Sakura asked, walking forwards to get a better view of the woman. It was a bad sign when her expression turned from disgusted to one that was the absolute encapsulation of "sorry."

"This tea has turmeric in it." The lady said, as if that for some reason explained anything. Sakura stared back at her, clearly displaying that she didn't grasp why the appearance of turmeric was apparently of any relevance. Reading her expression, the lady went on. "I am completely allergic to anything to do with ginger. If I even have one cup of that, my lights are going off."

That was when it clicked in Sakura's mind just what was going to happen over the next eighteen hours. Try as she might, she couldn't defy the inevitability of destiny.

"Are you sure? What have you been drinking the last billion years?" Her voice was almost screeching, cool certifiably blown now that she grasped the reality of the goose-chase she'd been sent on.

"Not turmeric, that's for sure."

The information was laid bare for Sakura's mind. This old woman had been expecting lighter tea, there had been a mix-up at the pharmacist and they ended up giving her strong tea. Tea that was strong enough _to kill her because of her weakened digestive system._

"…Can you just drink it anyway?"

* * *

The answer was a no, a very solid no. The wheels of the wagon creaked under layers of dirt and rocks as it rode through the moonlight. Sakura had curled up into a ball as she realized that there was no doubt that they'd send them back once they got the right batch while Sasuke cursed the clerks under his breath, simultaneously looking to the side where Naruto was locked in a dead heat argument with an actual deaf person. This day had definitely been a hot streak for him, with this altercation coming off the heels of him berating an eleven-year old.

"Fuck you! I don't have any money asshole!" Naruto had long forgone signing, in favor of attempting to yell loud enough to reactivate the Daos hearing. The man was currently demanding that if they were going to do another return trip to-and-from the ladies' cottage. Realizing Naruto was obviously yelling _something_, Dao stirred the flames by continually holding his hand over his ear in a "I can't hear you motion", getting more and more of a rection out of Naruto.

"Hey! You can hear me; you know what I'm fucking saying asshole!" Naruto continued to yell until the sight of Dao holding his hand out shoved him to breaking point. In an attempt to sign something along the lines of "just get going huh?", Naruto hands flurried around quite ridiculously, as if he'd been possessed by something otherworldly, to the point where he nearly smacked Dao across the face. In response, the man meekly attempted to shove Naruto backwards, succeeding in halting the boys flailing but not his anger. It continued to sizzle within him, even as he sat back down in a huff.

"How much longer Sasuke?" Naruto asked to the designated-GPS. Sasuke had gained a simple but somewhat effective grasp of the correlation between the scenery and the time left before they reached Konoha.

"What's coming up?"

Naruto half-heartedly shuffled to the side of the cart, moping over the vicinity. He looked over for a miniscule amount of time before turning back to Sasuke.

"I can't see." He replied.

Sasuke clutched his hands together and began to weave through signs before finally unleashing a large pillar of fire up into the air. The light from the flames acted as an improvised lantern, an orange tint illuminating the area with renewed visibility.

"Thanks." Naruto said, tone surprisingly reserved when considering his friend had just shot a fireball up in the air. He once again looked over the side, moving quickly this time. The fireball had helped but it wasn't going to last forever, even now it's retracting reach was causing Naruto to have to squint.

"I see…a few trees, then after that there's no trees. There're flowers sticking up from the ground, white ones."

"Snake." Sakura interrupted him with a panicked tone.

"Nope, I don't see any." Naruto responded absent mindedly.

"Naruto! Get out of the way!" Sasuke yelled, the gravitas of his voice running up Naruto's spine and sending his eyes darting to the side. His body moved before his mind could properly react to what was in front of it, a subconscious twitch telling him to move backwards. Whatever that twitch was, it saved his life, as a large, almost dragon-headed snake chomped down against the wood wall.

"Oh fuck!" Now his brain kicked in. The snake was big. Not human-size or anything, but Naruto knew snakes shouldn't be _that_ big. Small, scaled spikes stood out on its head as it dangled from the wood, pointing backwards at an acute angle. The resemblance was something crossed between a snake, a dragon and a demon, it's reptilian features only being amplified as it hung onto the cart with its mouth.

"Get it off!" Suddenly, its beady yellow eyes snapped shut as a metal stick slammed against its face. Sakura, who was obviously the most fearful out of them all, had not hesitated in grabbing her weapon and beating on the creature. Initially shocked at seeing the girl smacking the animal with an attempt to at the very least maim it, Naruto and Sasuke quickly grabbed their own sticks and began to rough up the creature.

_**Bam!**_

_**Bam!**_

_**Bam!**_

It felt like _hours _until the snake decided to cut its losses and just let go of its grip on the pallet. Even the slightly sick thrill of hitting an opponent with an attack begun to subside as the attack's uselessness became obvious quickly. The snake just sat there, eating every swing of the rods until finally, Naruto was able to pry its grip lose by sliding the baton into the gap between the Snake's teeth and the wood. Upon its primitive brain realizing that it would most likely fall into the path of the wheel and die if Naruto's overthrow attempt was successful, the snake dropped back onto the ground and scurried backwards away from the genin. Sakura and Sasuke immediately felt their energy levels spike downwards as the adrenaline in their systems evaporated. Naruto just stood up triumphant, leering at the snake.

"Yeah, you better run!"

The snake didn't even have ears.

* * *

"The hell do you three want?" The brown-haired lady and Dason had apparently been working a long shift, as they were both still bickering at the counter when Team Seven emerged into the halls of the pharmacy. Sakura and Sasuke looked like they'd just been through a warzone while Naruto couldn't help but keep one of his eyes fixated on the small, fluffy pink toy from earlier.

"You gave us the wrong tea." Sasuke said simply, glaring at her with pure venom in his eyes. All words and emotions were temporarily sucked out of the room, until Dason began clutching at his stomach like he was going through sickness. What he was feeling was anything but though, as loud laughter began to flow from his mouth like lava to a volcano.

"Hahaha…_**HAHAHAHAHAHAH! **_I fucking told you! 2845 is _turmeric. _2854 is _hibiscus_!_"_ He berated the lady to his left, who jumped from embarrassed to self-justifying in less than a second.

"Shut the fuck up you revisionist piece of shit. You didn't know!"

"I did so. Just didn't want to say anything so you ended up looking like a dumbass."

"That makes you compliant!"

"And it makes you a dumbass."

"Then go get the 28532555-whatever jackass, since you're apparently a tea connoisseur."

"I'd hope I would be; eighty percent of my job is pouring out the thing after you fuck it up." He smugly shot back as he walked into the back room.

"Yeah, yeah!" The lady was thoroughly depleted of any insults she could throw out to disguise the fact that this was undoubtedly her fault. She leaned against the countertop, positioning her elbow in a way that specifically made it so that she didn't have to look at Team Seven. They were fine with it, as the tea was now the least of their problems. Out of all the issues they had, the main one was that they now had a deaf man waiting outside who wasn't going to let them complete the mission unless they payed him. They could've just told him to fuck off, and told the Hokage what had happened, but Sasuke had rightfully have pointed out that no matter what they did, there was a high chance that this mission would be considered a technical failure. It didn't matter the context, having a low-rank mission like this be a technical failure would be an absolute resume-ruiner.

They _**needed**_ money.

* * *

Kakashi let out a loud groan of pleasure as he settled into the bath. One dry hand was on a book, one wet hand was wrapped around a glass of sparkling red wine. Steam drifted up from the blissfully warm water, warping through the foamy bubbles that lay just over the surface and into the man's mask. Early-on in his discovery that bathing was more than just sitting in still water and washing your hair, Kakashi had recognized that he could use his face mask as a steam vent to exfoliate the pores of his face. He was winding the day down as he should be, relaxing in a nice, hot bath. No genin, no missions, just him, a good icha-icha novel and a glass of fine wine. The scent of the bubbles radiated around the room, bouncing from wall to wall and intensifying the smell. It was a special bubble bath marketed for "adults", so instead of kids scents like strawberry or grape, this one smelt like fresh autumn leaves flowing in at the end of a wet, windy day. (Admittedly, it wasn't that far off from what their brand of strawberry smelt like.)

"_Kakashi!_"

A voice rung out, too light for him to make out the gender. He clutched the book a slight bit harder. Sometimes, when he was alone, those voices had a tendency to crawl back into his head but after all these years, he'd learnt to block it out for the most part. Just focus on the page…

"_KAKASHI-SENSEI!" _

Wait, was that Naruto? Sure as hell sounded like him if it wasn't. Kakashi looked up at what he could of the houses front from the bathroom doorway. If it was Naruto, he didn't know if he wanted to answer. He had his bath, he had his wine, he was tired. Hearing the Uzumaki's voice bellowing through his house was probably one of the things he least wanted to listen to at this moment in time.

"I don't think he's in there." Wait, that was definitely Sakura's voice, which meant Sasuke was presumably there as well. What the hell did they all want at this hour?

"Who else could we ask if he's not?" There was the confirmation of the Uchiha's presence.

"Maybe Iruka-sensei." Naruto said

"He's an academy teacher Naruto, I don't think he's financially stable enough to shill out Daos fee."

"Well, then Kakashi-senseis our only hope."

A small silence began.

"Let's break his window."

Kakashi scampered out of the bath fast enough to cause a tsunami.

* * *

Five hours down, seven to go until they could sleep easy, at least according to Sasuke's time-keeping. They couldn't rest easy in the pallet itself, lest another scale snake try to hop in and kill them (so much for the raised protection) so they were forced to just try and wait it out for the time being. Even with borderline insomniacs Naruto and Sasuke, a collective feeling of fatigue was still being felt around all three of them. Heavy sleep bags sat under there eyes, every limb being just a step away from going limp. The night sky was in full-swing at this point, high up moonlight bleeding down to the ground.

"We should sleep in cycles." Sasuke suddenly said, visibly having to work to keep his eyes open. "Two hour and a quarter hour each, the other two stay up and watch for snakes."

"That's a good idea. One of us will have to go a super long stretch without sleep though." Sakura said.

"Me and Sasuke'll rock paper scissors for it later. You can go first Sakura." Naruto commented. The girl was initially opposed to the idea, attempting to protest.

"No, that's okay."

"Seriously Sakura, you look like you're going to straight up drop dead at any second." Sasuke added on to Naruto's point. While she wasn't a heavy-sleeper by any stretch of the imagination, it would be a lot easier for one of the other two to bear the load of complete exhaustion. With that in mind, Sakura chose to nod instead of object any further, curling up sideways and resting along the side of the pallet. She closed her eyes, trying to let the wave of sleep wash her to a resting place.

_**Thump!**_

Okay, maybe that was going to be difficult. The wagon would constantly run over rocks and things of the like, sending large, earthquake-like ripples through the back compartment. Sakura doubted she was ever going to get to sleep if she had to deal with the constant feeling of her head being thrown up slightly before bashing against the wood.

"Hey, can you guys talk to me for a bit?" She said, rubbing her eyes as she spoke.

"Aren't you meant to go to sleep?" Sasuke responded, confused by her request.

"I always sleep better with white noise." This definitely made sense, and it wasn't like Naruto and Sasuke had anything better to do.

"Yeah sure. What do you want to talk about?" Naruto asked, brushing at the whiskers of his face. Sakura took a few seconds to think of a reply before her eyes opened wider.

"Let's play a game. We each go around and tell the others one secret about ourselves."

Naruto and Sasukes response came instantaneously, and perfectly in-synch.

"_**Not it.**_"

Sakura's face, in turn, temporarily twisted into one of anger.

"Come on!"

"Sorry Sakura, you suggested it so you should go first." Naruto pointed out, to which Sakura didn't even bother to refute. She was going to talk eventually, so she may as well go first anyway.

"Okay. But you guys _can't _laugh!" She pointed a stern finger back at the pair, who both nodded. With ground rules laid out, she decided to just rip the band-aid off and say her secret as fast as she could. "Sometimes, when it's cold, I sleep with a plush animal. "

Naruto instinctively snorted, though he was so quick to apologize that Sakura didn't even have time to tell him off.

"Sorry."

Despite his obviously sincere act of contrition, Sakura still curled her lips up into a pout. Embarrassment began to run down her face, until, out of the corner of her eye, she noticed Sasuke staring back at her with a look of slight curiosity.

"What type of animal is it?"

It took a few seconds for Sakura to realize what he'd said. Her pout faded into a smile.

"It's a little, white bunny rabbit. She's called Kanna."

"That's nice."

Sakura hadn't ever seen Sasuke smile as sincerely as he did then. When he had smiled, it was usually either dim or tainted with the slight cruelness that came at him laughing at whatever dumb antic Naruto had just gotten himself into. For once, she could say she had a solid picture in her head as to what Sauske's real smile looked like.

"Okay, Naruto, you're next."

"What?! That's not fair, what about Sasuke?!" He complained

"You're going to have to talk eventually anyway, just do it now." Sakura replied, vocalizing her own line of thinking. It wasn't like Naruto had anyway to counter it, so he quickly shut up and began to think. He sat there for probably half a minute; eyes pointed upwards as he racked through his brain for a "secret".

"I don't have one." He finally said, much to both Sasuke and Sakura's chagrin.

"Boo! That's a cop-out." Sakura replied, mouth once again folding into a pout.

"No it's not. I'm just, like, super transparent that's all." Naruto argued back, clearly not doing so in good-faith.

"There's no way you don't have one secret, Naruto." Sasuke added.

"Fine. My real name isn't even Naruto. It's short for…Narutother."

"That's a lie." Sasuke responded quickly, choosing not to believe that Naruto's parents were apparently sadistic fucks who would name their child "Narutother" (as well as realizing if that was his real name, it would've been mentioned by a teacher once at the very least) "Tell a real one, or admit you're too much of a baby to tell us a secret."

This, Sasuke had found, was a surefire way to get Naruto fuming as long as you didn't overuse it. Maybe its effects had something to do with how badly he wanted to be Hokage and that by calling him literally the furthest thing from it, you set him off. Or maybe it was because Naruto was a thirteen-year-old, and thirteen-year olds didn't like to be called babies. Either way, it sent him into a huff.

"Oh yeah? Here's a real one for ya'- "Naruto began with angered facial features, only for them to soften up as he stopped himself. "-You two have to promise not to tell _anyone, _okay? Not even Kakashi-sensei."

Both Sasuke and Sakura nodded their heads.

"…My dad was the Fourth Hokage." He blurted out.

Sakura's eyes went wide at the statement. Sasuke's became slim with judgment.

"Bullshit. Is it because your both blond?" Sasuke immediately said, only for his words to apparently aggravate Naruto instead of cause him to back down from the lie.

"_Shut the fuck up_." Naruto growled back spitefully, only to quickly realize he needed to compose himself to make it seem like he wasn't bullshiting. Considering he'd just claimed one of the most beloved world leaders in Shinobi history was his father, evidence was definitely required. "It's true, Old Man Third told me. I've got a picture of him with me as a baby and he's holding me up and shit."

This wasn't quite enough to fully convince Sasuke, though, as it wasn't like Naruto had the picture with him to prove it. In seven hours, they all would have probably have forgotten about it, so it was probably a good idea to pursue the possible lie now.

"Why wouldn't you tell everyone this?" This wasn't at all a bad question when taking into account Naruto's personality, as well as the fact that he never had many friends in the Academy. The thought that Naruto would've brought it up to try and score some cool points with the other kids wasn't that far out of the realm of possibility in Sasuke's mind. However, Naruto's face became almost hurt at the question, to the point where Sasuke couldn't help but feel a little guilty for asking it.

"I told a group of kids one time and they…" He paused for a second. "Beat the shit out of me for being "disrespectful", which is dumb because it's true so it can't even be-"

Sasuke completely slowed his interrogative tone as he heard Naruto's tone begin to get softer and softer. The Uzumaki boy trailed off from speaking entirely, crossing his arms and looking over at the nearby scenery. His friends sat there in silence, regretting trying to pry an answer out from him at all.

"I'm sorry Naruto." Sakura said, guilt running down her back despite her not even really pressuring him into anything.

"It's okay, he's just a deadbeat. All he ever cared about was himself, I'm glad he's fucking dead so I don't have to live with him."

Silence overtook the landscape, the only recognizable sounds being the howling of the wind and the occasional sound of crickets chirping. The three of them sat there for a while, not a word being spoken. That was, until, a small, soft string of noise began to ring out. It was barely above a whisper, so low in tone that even a person a running along next to the cart wouldn't be able to hear it. It was from Sasuke.

"_I'm on the road again- "He_ sung, drawing both Naruto and Sakura's gazes on to him._ "it's the fastest road I've ever known._"

Naruto couldn't help but smile. Well, maybe a little more than smile. Realizing he needed to act quick to successfully harmonize with the only other part of the song Sasuke probably knew, he began to sing along, even if his voice still rung a bit more hollow than usual.

"_**Snow's falling, trees grow through though. I guess it's just another spring in Kumo**__" _The two sung together, forming what could be, in only the most technical sense of the word, described as a harmony. They continued through the rest of the song, Sasuke speaking every word one second after Naruto as he didn't know the song. It created a strange, awful-sounding mish-mash of words, but despite this, Naruto unmistakably perked up throughout the performance, solemn smile becoming brighter and brighter on every line. Before Sakura even realized it, she was falling asleep. This shitty, out-of-tune, barley coherent song was lulling her to sleep. She would've laughed if she wasn't already out by the time she realized it.


	15. Seashells By The Sea Shore

_Sand crunched beneath his feet; occasional grains being flicked out of the boy's dark hair. He hated the beach, and the sun that usually came with it. It always felt just a little bit too hot.  
_

_Suddenly, the sound of sand crunching under footsteps started to ring out. The boy turned his head and watched as another boy, a decent few years older than him stepped outwards with something in his hand. It was shiny and white, that much he could tell, only getting a closer look when the person in front of him dropped the shell down near him. The particles of sand crunched underneath it's landing, while drops of sunlight flicked through the older boy's hair. _

_The young one stared at the white object with no apparent intuition of how to use it. The older boy dropped down to a knee, holding it up to him. _

"_It's a seashell, put it near your ear." _

_The young boy shot his brother an unconvinced look. _

"_Just trust me." _

_It didn't take much more convincing for the child to follow, holding the shell up to his ear like it was a walkie-talkie. His eyes widened as he began to hear it. The thrashing, the calm and the overall balance of the sea, right in his ear. _

_It was enchanting._

* * *

Sasuke woke up in a sweat. It wasn't even warm outside, the streets filled out with cool, four o'clock air. It was because of this that his sweat almost immediately started to evaporate as it rolled down his body. It took a few seconds, maybe minutes even, to shake off the drowsiness that came with a sudden wake-up. Small shards of memories past were pieced together slowly, bit-by bit. There was something bothering him, that he knew as much. Not the night terrors, no, he hadn't had them tonight surprisingly. A few seconds of deliberation passed before Sasuke's now cleared-mind quickly remembered why he was unhappy.

Tomorrow was Family-Unity Day, a tired remnant of Senjuism that seemingly only served to laugh at him. Seriously, its existence was as a holiday was completely and utterly pointless. If families really appreciated each other, they wouldn't need a dumb holiday to convince themselves to spend time with each other. He tossed over in his covers, cocooning himself under its high-class silk. This used to be a room belonging to the clan elders, everything from the bed to the slick material of the floorboards being at a higher tier than those of the lower houses. While this was partly because of the classic Konoha mentality of "respect age before everything else", Uchiha culture also played a role. The philosophy of The Uchiha put massive emphasis on individual journey, self-discovery and the individuality of the sharingan. The elders, having reached the final section of their lives, would have already walked their own journey and as a result, were rewarded for their efforts.

A small part of Sasuke knew that sleeping in this room (that he had long since redecorated to serve his own interests) could be considered _incredibly _disrespectful, but he technically was the oldest-serving Uchiha at this point. It wasn't like he was going to go back to his old room either. He didn't sleep well as is, no way was he going to be able have a decent nap in the bedroom he woke up to find his whole clan cut down on the floor by his brother in. That reminded him that he still hadn't cleaned up Itachi's bedroll.

_I'll do it tomorrow_.

That's what he'd been telling himself for the last five and a half years, yet he always seemed to forget. Sasuke shifted again.

* * *

_**BRIIIIIIIING!**_

"Aah…damn it." Naruto groaned, hand flopping around his bedside table for a few seconds before he finally managed to shut off the alarm. He proceeded to flop back onto his side, hoping to get a little more sleep before he realized what day it was. _Tuesday_…no, wait, _Family-Unity Day_. He'd set the alarm so he could go do his laundry before the laundromat was flooded with stupid families, because today, most of them took it upon themselves to do _everything _together, even if it was as menial as the _laundry_. He ran a hand through his hair, unfurling the gold locks into a less cascading hairstyle before stretching his limbs outward in an attempt to shake those early morning bed jitters. As it was a much-desired day off, Naruto would've liked to sleep in for longer but a premature awakening sure beat having to watch a bunch of unhappy families stuffing their clothes in a dryer like it was the most magical bonding experience on earth.

It was early, a few minutes shy of six in the morning according to his bedside alarm clock. The opening of his blinds did nothing to upset his eyes, with Konohas usual blinding sun being replaced by a grey, clouded sky. It was one of those skies cloudy enough to mask the world in its dampness, even the smallest sliver of light not managing to break through the murky abyss. Naruto had never liked this weather, nor how lifeless it made the village look so he chose to pay it no mind. He'd quickly take a shower, run a quick trip to the laundromat and make it back into bed before seven. Unfortunately, a poorly-placed binder ruined his plans. It had a leather cover and gold symbols above Naruto's level of reading comprehension embroidered with a sleek shine running over their lettering. The Uzumaki boy distinctly remembered reading through it the night before. He also distinctly remembered becoming angry at the contents and throwing it at the wall, which is probably why it had ended up in the position it was.

Without even thinking, Naruto picked it up. He knew it's insides would get him angry, as they had the other dozen or so times he'd looked through it, but he did it anyway. It was essentially a scrapbook, that's what he'd found, but the pictures inside were usually blurred, or had spots of white where the camera hadn't been able to properly trace the frame. He suspected that cameras were a lot worse back when these were taken (which said a lot, because they weren't all that good now. It was one of the reasons that Hashirama flower-chain picture was so iconic, it was actually more than 60% clear after the photo was taken)

The first picture wasn't as blurred as the rest, though still hard to discern. It was of a red-haired woman wearing green, that much he could make out, but any of her facial features was indiscernible thanks to the color bleed. He turned the page, creasing the papers under his fingers. The red-haired woman was probably his mother, he thought. There were countless pictures of her scattered over the pages, her hair being unmistakable even with the photo's frequent distortion. He presumed he got his surname from her, seeing as he didn't receive the dumbass "Namikaze" name of his dad. He didn't really care (or at least that's what he told himself), she was either some bitch who dropped him as soon as she could or she'd ended up getting killed by the moron himself.

It was at this point that Naruto should've realized his heightening blood pressure and just quit while he was ahead ("ahead" referring to the fact that he hadn't thrown the binder into his wall yet) but he soldiered on, strangely fixated on reaching the one photo that always set him off. Page after page he flipped through, scouring picture by picture for the one until finally, he reached it. It was towards the end of the book, glued squarely into the middle of the page as if to punctuate its importance. Through the slips of white paper outlining sat a simplistic picture of Minato holding a baby as he sat in the Hokage chair. That's all it was, yet Naruto instinctively let out a growl when he saw it. Aside from the sheer existence of his father in it, his reasons for hating it so much were unclear to even himself. Maybe it was Minato's dumb stupid face, maybe it was the fact that even as a baby he was dressed in orange as if they knew that would be his favorite color which they didn't 'cause they sucked as parents. Maybe it was because Minato's dumb stupid face made it look like he cared, even though he didn't, because Naruto wouldn't have a _fucking demon _sealed inside of him if he did.

He'd lasted longer than normal, but Naruto finally gave out. He slammed the binder shut with a loud "_**thud**_" before tossing it at the wall hard enough to almost imbed it. Mumbling curse words under his breath, Naruto ducked into his bathroom and flicked on the water as hot as it could go.

It was going to be a long day…

* * *

Sasuke sighed, letting his weary grip of the book he was reading drop over his face. The pages scattered around his head like a lampshade, crinkling and cracking from the drop. It was a few seconds before he realized that he couldn't just sit around all day with a book over his face and brushed it off. The Uchiha library was expansive but it felt like he'd gone through it all hundreds of times, mainly because he most likely had. He knew everything about the Uchiha, from the family history to the culture to the Magenkyo Sharingan and Susanoo. The later at least got a slight giggle out of him, just for how ridiculous it was.

When a user unlocked his Magenkyo Sharingan, which was an ascended form of the sharingan, he was granted with two powers specific to him as well as the Susanoo, an armored embodiment of the user's chakra. No Susanoo avatar was the same, some were big, some were small, some wielded swords, some bows, some lances, but there was one common factor among them…no one could fucking use the thing. Sure, some could partly manifest it, maybe even to the point of summoning its upper body, but a "Perfect Susanoo" as it had been dubbed in the book was physically impossible to obtain. It used up too much chakra for anyone to handle it for more than a few seconds. Historically, anyone who attempted to do so ended up dead or rushed to the hospital from serve chakra fatigue.

Sasuke had long since given up on trying to decipher any more information about the Magenkyo. Its manifestation was incredibly rare from what Sasuke could tell, with him counting only four occurrences of it in history. From what he could tell, nearly every story related to its manifestation came with a severe case of emotional trauma, though if that really was its trigger, it was fucking picky, because he sat there watching his entire family die and god couldn't even spare him a basic sharingan. Meanwhile, his brother got both from nothing. Well, not nothing. As much as Sasuke loathed thinking about that night for too long, his mind automatically tended to stray over to Itachis motivation if he was left bored too long. The ANBU had never been able to flag down what it could've been, even after a thorough investigation. Any of his teammates said he'd shown no signs of mental instability prior to the massacre, even as early as a day before it happened.

Still, Sasuke swore up and down that it was Shisui's death that did it. Shisui had been his brothers' best friend and ANBU partner as well as one of the only known users of the Magenkyo. His story wasn't anything special, father was an alcoholic and beat on him constantly, with it only getting worse when he learnt Shisui was hanging out with a posh "main branch" kid like Itachi. Something had to give and eventually, Shisui couldn't take it anymore. He grabbed a hammer from his Dad's shed and went wild on the man. The ANBU report, which Sasuke had read through multiple times in an attempt to find some link to Itachi, said he had claimed "he didn't remember doing anything after grabbing it" and had passed out as soon as he realized the old man was dead. He and Itachi had partnered up when they reached the ANBU and had grown to become somewhat renowned as one of the most effective duos in Konoha. They were dubbed "The Birds of a Feather" due to the odd designs of their masks, and had struck-fear into the hearts of the other villages thanks to their lethal combination of stealth, speed and swordsmanship.

Then Shisui died. He'd read over the report for this too, but the details were generally vague outside of the core actions. Shisui Uchiha had died at the age of sixteen, from PTSD-induced suicide. A week later, Itachi Uchiha, aged sixteen, killed every single member of the Uchiha Clan in an act that's motivations remain unknown. There was no doubt in Sasuke's mind that this had caused Itachi to do it. If Shisui had PTSD bad enough to force himself to take his own life, then maybe that's how Itachi's had manifested.

Sasuke's brain switched off. He was unraveling the case to a point where it would not allow him to go and so it just stopped thinking. It was not the first time he'd done this, in fact, he could sparsely remember a day since the massacre when he hadn't asked himself why Itachi had done it. Over the years, he seemed to paint a clearer painting but it was at the point where he started to really bite into it that his mind simply wouldn't let him go any further with it. Maybe it was because he'd gone out to the pond with Itachi just days before and if Shisuis death had really set him off, then Sasuke had been talking to an Itachi that knew full well what he was going to do just nights after. Sasuke stood up, harshly kicking the book to the side as he walked off. He'd begun to pick up another habit, perhaps you could say a coping mechanism, in the latter few weeks. Whenever he began to think too hard about Itachi, he'd get up and walk out of the house to somewhere he felt like he was understood. It wasn't far, just a few minutes from the compound and even though today was his least favorite day of the year, he knew there was someone who felt exactly the same way as him.

Prior to starting this habit a few weeks ago, Sasuke hadn't stepped out of the compound by his own free will since the massacre, yet know he was getting out almost every day. As he snuck through the back gate of the maze-like complex, he watched the clouds fly by. It was grey, a dark grey that made everything in the village look a little bit smaller. Sasuke liked the grey clouds.

* * *

"So how do I do it?"

"Well, you see the green button up there?"

"Yeah."

"Get your clothes in main compartment, scoop in the powder, then hit that button."

Naruto was positively fuming. A family of three had decided it would be a super cool bonding experience to wash their clothes together. What made it worse was that the kid was a little idiot and couldn't even do it right, despite the fact that he was ten, which was way too fucking old to not know how to do your own goddamn laundry in Narutos completely unbiased opinion. Then the father and the mother had the gall to do a little mini-celebration when the dumbass managed to hit the button. If Naruto got a medal every time, he did his own laundry, he'd outrank literal war heroes.

_**Ding!**_

There, see, he did it just now and yet there was no one giving _him _a standing ovation. Naruto yanked his jacket as well as a pair of pants out of the washing machine, roughly folding them as he marched up the counter. He knew how much it'd cost and handed over the payment silently, having to fully focus on not kicking the washing machine in rage. He was already on thin ice with the guy who owned this place after the bloody jacket incident and didn't want to get slapped with a ban lest he go out on his next mission smelling like shit. He just stuffed his hands in his pockets and went on his way, trying (and failing) not to overhear the family.

"You've got to be able to do these things by yourself, Tama."

"But you and mum- "

"Yeah, of course we'll always be there for you, but- "

Naruto slammed the door hard enough to make the owner look up from the counter. He sees the same types of kids all the time. Not the ones that were handed everything, just handed _something_. The ability to go to bed loved, a dinner table with more than one seat, someone to tell them where to go when they didn't know. All bare necessities that Naruto lived without. What'd he gotten from his parents? A monthly allowance that he'd taken years to learn how to use, a shitty binder filled with unrecognizable pictures and a demon sealed in his stomach. Speaking of gifts from his parents, Naruto couldn't help but realize how the people in the streets darted around him. He was like a messenger of god, parting through people like they were the sea. Since most of the people on the street were families, the whispers that usually surrounded him became less invasive then usual. He couldn't just leave well enough alone though, and his ears began to section in on the chatter he could still make out.

"Come to the side. Kei, _come to the side_." A young mother whispered to her son, dragging him over to her. The harshness and fear in her voice almost made Naruto feel queasy, though he'd cope easily. It was a lazy trick, but it always seemed to get a rise out of its target. As he passed by the whispering lady, his eyes darted up, blues matching her greens. He noticed her breath hitch in fear, facial features bulging outward as if she was face to face with the nine-tails itself. Naruto gritted his teeth roughly, glaring down at her…before his tongue popped out of his mouth in a smirk, one eye snapping shut. There was a certain flourish to their face in the afterglow of this prank that Naruto always found soothing. It was that pulsating surge of anger, followed by the realization that they could do nothing to aggravate Naruto in response. If they were stupid enough to think that his control of the nine-tails was so slim that it could burst at any moment, they damn sure weren't going to fuck around and light the fuse.

His dried clothes lay heavy over his shoulders as he walked back to his apartment. He'd slipped the jacket back on early, zipping it downwards across the white strip. He crudely folded his pants into a messy ball that could fit just barley fit in his pockets, before realizing he'd just clogged up the one that was currently holding his keys. His hands rustled through his pockets once more, attempting to untangle his keys from the sea of orange. He eventually managed to get a handle on them, but at the great cost of unfurling his pants to the point where they were messily hanging out onto his side. Luckily, he was almost home already, so very few people had witnessed an actual registered ninja dragging his pants leg along the ground. He reached the apartment complex a few minutes later, although complex was a generous turn of phrase in this instance. It was a line of five apartments that had been spaced out along a decent-section of land. Two were completely uninhabited, while the two populated by a poor-family and a deathly underweight man who had lived there longer than Naruto yet the boy had only ever seen him twice.

He burst into the halls, tossing his pants over his back in an attempt to restructure his load once more. It was then that his eyes settled on a peculiar sight, that being Sasuke Uchiha standing in his doorway, as well as in his door's way. The black-haired boy stood still as a statue, staring at Naruto's door with some kind of intent.

"Hey, asshole!" Naruto screamed, loud enough to disrupt the other apartment-owners for sure. Sasuke turned to him, initially taken off-guard by his sudden appearance, only for his face to quickly squash up into a glare. "You trying to rob me or something?"

"Nope. It's not like you have anything worth robbing the first place."

"Say that shit to my face."

"I'm saying it to your face right now."

"Nuh-uh. I'm still down the hall, it doesn't count."

"It does, I can see your face."

"Nope."

"**Yes,** Naruto, I can literally see your mouth moving right now. If I wanted, I could fucking lip read you."

In response to this, Naruto raised his non-pants carrying hand over his features. It was completely futile, as Sasuke had already _"_said that shit to his face" so making it so he couldn't continue did nothing to prove his own point. He quickly (and awkwardly) shuffled towards Sasuke, sandals brushing through the dirty carpet. As soon as he reached a decent vicinity to the Uchiha, he took the hand away and exposed his face once more.

"Say it now pussy!"

"You don't have anything worth robbing." Sasuke replied blankly, not providing any fuel to Naruto's antics. The Uzumaki quickly stiffened out as any real stake he had in the argument crumbled around him. It had been unnecessary anyway, Naruto had not thought Sasuke was going to rob him, because he knew exactly why Sasuke was here. For the last few weeks, they'd essentially been on an alternating schedule, one showing up at the others house with a single question in mind.

"You wanna' hang out?" Naruto asked him, shoving the key in the doors slit.

"Nope, I just walked over here to admire your apartment." Sasuke's response was obviously sarcastic, but Naruto took no offense to it. Instead, he just let out a loud laugh of appreciation at his friends joke. After a brief detour in which he straightened his cupboard, Naruto emerged back out the door.

"Ichiraku?"

"Sure."

With no more than two words exchanged between them, Naruto and Sasuke now had a definitive location.

* * *

The two boys shuffled through the crowded streets, careful to avoid the dust that was being kicked up due to the sheer amount of feet on the ground. Occasionally, one of them would brush past another citizen but most of the time, the citizen would be long gone before even a mumbled apology could be given. Family Unity Day certainly had turn out, that was for sure.

"You wanna split the bill?" Naruto asked him with a cheeky grin. That apparently displayed his true intentions, but Sasuke had realized pretty early on in their visits to the Ichiraku Ramen Bar that Naruto's "bill splitting farce" was all talk. At face value, it seemed like he would trick Sasuke into paying more than his fair share of the bill, as Naruto would eat significantly more and then only pay 50% of the sum total. However, while there was no doubt in Sasukes mind that Naruto _thought he was going to do this_, in actuality, Naruto would always get cold feet. Maybe it was because he was too nice of a person, but Naruto tended to end up only eating three or four bowls if they did split the bill, whereas normally he'd devour nine like it was nothing. From what Sasuke had gathered, Naruto had learned to be conservative with his money and would his management skills would subconsciously override his other tendencies.

"Yeah, sure, let's split the bill." Sasuke said, with a grin. It was a win-win situation, Sasuke got to look like a good friend while not actually having to pay the exorbitant amount splitting the bill entailed, and Naruto got the dopamine rush that came with it while not actually eating that much. This agreement quickly turned to a lose-lose nevertheless, as Naruto and Sasuke found themselves in front of a boarded-up ramen house.

"What the hell?!" Naruto shrieked at the top of his lungs, running closer to fully grasp the extent of the situation. The Ichiraku stall had large divides placed in front of it, blocking off any entrance to it's confines. Naruto circled around it no less than three times, in what looked like an attempt to try and find some sort of secret entry point. During his third-round trip, he found the note that had been messily tapped to the front of the stall. His wide eyes grazed over it, as if he was reading a note that signified his own oncoming death while Sasuke uneasily stood around kicking up dust.

_**Dear Customers, **_

_**The store is closed temporarily for Family Unity Day. Regularly scheduled service will resume tomorrow. **_

Naruto recognized the handwriting (the first few letters being Teuchis messy scrawl, before transitioning to Ayame's more neat script) so it couldn't have been a hooligan-lead prank. He had to resist every nerve in his body that told him to scrunch up the note and throw it onto the ground, and he succeed. Instead of tearing the note off, he just let out a guttural growl and began to stomp against the dirt ground.

"Naruto, it's not a big deal. He's going to be back tomorrow." Sasuke said, falling on deaf ears.

"It is a big deal! I've never seen Mr. Ramen take a day off, even when he had the flu!"

"You should not have been eating his food if he was making it with the flu." Sasuke couldn't help but emote a little as he thought about what other viruses Naruto had unknowingly congested in his years of going here.

"That's not the point! He works everyday for a million years, and now he takes a day off because "_oh I love my daughter and wife so much and want to spend time with them"" _Naruto sputtered in a mocking voice, not realizing that what he was saying was an incredibly reasonable request.

"Look, we'll just go to a different ramen place. There's one two blocks down from here."

"It won't be the same." Naruto grumbled like a toddler, though his actual point was sound. Sasuke and Naruto both knew that Ichiraku was easily the best ramen shop in the village, especially compared to those indoor building ones. It was the only restaurant where Sasuke could drink a meat-based broth and not want to gag from the artificial flavoring that coursed through it.

"Well, do you want shit ramen or no ramen?" Sasuke asked him, with a decent counterargument. For as much as Naruto would consider himself a "ramen connoisseur", he still shoveled the shitty grocery store ones down his mouth on the daily. There was more "shit ramen" running through his system than water at this point so to say he'd rather no ramen would be asinine. Luckily, he took the reasonable approach and cracked a small smile.

"Okay, let's go."

Sasuke flashed an even smaller smile back at him, Naruto beginning to walk over to him despite the heavy heart that came with departing from his beloved storefront. One that had treated him well over his entire life. One that had served up the most delicious food and as a result, created memories within its broth. One that had provided sanctuary to the-

"_**NARUTO UZUMAKI!**_" A childish voice suddenly boomed out with enough force to brake Naruto's overdramatic thoughts. Both Sasuke and Naruto's eyes began to scan the vicinity for the source, finally resting on a small boy with his finger stuck out dramatically. He had a long blue scarf, and sharp brown hair. His previous button-up shirt had been replaced in favor of a gold gi-like outfit with the overlapping half of it being pinned into the other one. Both genin immediately groaned upon seeing him. "two and a half weeks ago to this day, you dishonored me!"

Naruto didn't replicate the boy's vigor. "Listen Konogamaru- "

"Konohamaru."

"I don't give a shit. Just go away." The deadpan look of Naruto's response actually managed to make Konohamaru falter slightly. Still, he quickly recomposed himself from the insult and clutched onto his scarf while folding his hand over his face like a manga villain.

"No! You can't just insult the future Fifth Hokage and get away with it like you did! I challenge you to a taijutusu duel." Konohamaru barked, to no effect. Naruto just stared back at him blankly, while Sasuke had to bite his tongue for fear of treason. He'd wanted to point out that there was no way Hiruzen going to live long enough for Konohamaru to be of-age when he kicked the bucket, but settled on a different insult.

"Hey, I think the paint on that wall's looking thin. Maybe you should go ask your grandfather for a bucket." Sasuke said, earning a loud exhale of laughter from Naruto. This only served to further piss off Konohamaru, the young boy gritting his teeth at the other two's amusement. His eyes grew wide in anger, mustering up a glare as a fierce as he could considering how young he was.

"Shut up! Witness my all new technique Naruto Uzumaki. _**Shadow tracing taijutsu!**_" Konohamaru roared, beginning to run forwards. As it turned out, shadow tracing taijutsu just meant running in a straight-line while occasionally shuffling to the left or right. Naruto observed the display with a mix of amusement and befuddlement, while Sasuke just watched on in concern of Konohamaru's health considering it looked like he was having a fit. While it was not intentional, this bewilderment that had set over both of them actually worked in Konohamarus advantage. Naruto was locked in place from confusion, and Sasuke was fully convinced he'd topple over any second so when he actually did manage to get into striking range, the Uzumaki youth was completely unprepared…

"Hyah!"

Not that it mattered, since Konohamaru effectively hit with all the attack power of a mosquito while having none of the precision. He literally didn't even bother to open his eyes, simply striking an utterly puzzled Naruto with messy strikes. However, despite their ineffectiveness, Naruto still became annoyed at their existence, as any attempt to walk past the child was blocked.

"Hey- "

"Hyahdadada!" Konohamarus incoherent battle cry did nothing but increase the annoyance of his attacks.

"Stop- "

"DADADADA"

"What the- "

"BOOM! BOOM!"

"hell are you- "

"Dissdissdiss-

"_Get the fuck off me dude_." Naruto's frustration hit a peak and he feebly attempted to push Konohamaru back. Despite how wholly ineffectual shove he'd given was, Naruto had still underestimated how weak Konohamaru had been and even that shove had sent him tumbling to the ground. As he fell onto the ground, Konohamaru completely froze up, eyes wide with terror. Sasuke swiftly realized that this was probably the hardest Konohamaru had ever been hit outside of maybe parental discipline. He lay there like a statue, to the point where the other two were worried he might burst out crying, before he slowly picked himself up off the ground. Wiping the dust from his scarf, his glare shot back up at Naruto.

"You may have won this round Naruto, but I'll be back! And next time, I'm gonna kick your ass so bad, you'll trade your genin spot with me!"

"Okay, cool." Naruto replied with dead eyes. His lifeless gaze only furthered the younger boy's embarrassment, and before he knew it, Konohamaru was running away with his arms behind his back. It wasn't until he was far out of view that Sasuke finally turned to Naruto, who had been so bemused by the interaction that he hadn't said anything.

"You sure showed him."

* * *

In all honesty, the ramen place they were at now didn't seem all too bad. It smelt alright, and the menu was pretty good (as good as a _menu_ could be). It did nothing to fill the Ichiraku-sized hole in Naruto's heart, with the large crowd that had been crammed into it taking away from the appeal, but it seemed to be a serviceable feed. Sasuke, in the meanwhile, appreciated the architecture of the restaurant. It had a large, glass entrance that served as a makeshift window as well as not having any proper flooring. Several tables were placed through it's interior, with the main kitchen being linked to what was almost a bar while sets of brightly lit candles ran over its walls. This, combined with the large, navy tarp that stretched along the ceiling made it feel closer to a big festival stall than a proper restaurant.

The only problem that he could pick up, was that they were apparently being refused service. Naruto hadn't noticed, or at least didn't want to, and was playing with a bottlecap he'd found on the ground, but Sasuke had. For the last ten minutes they'd sat at the bar, waiting for a server. At first, he'd thought that they were just busy (even though traffic really wasn't that high within the store) but after seeing a couple that had come in later than them get served quicker, Sasuke began to realize that the ignorance was intentional.

"Hey!" He motioned to the barkeep, causing Naruto to look up. They were again ignored by the man at the counter, who pretended not to hear Sasuke while he scribbled away literal gibberish on his notepad.

"**Hey**." He tried again, this time raising his arm up to get the man's attention. With no more plausible deniability left, the man turned around. It was strange, there was a look in his eye that was unbecoming of _anyone_, let alone a hospitality worker such as himself. Sasuke couldn't recognize it. Naruto did immediately. It was contempt. Someone obviously didn't want to serve the nine-tailed fox.

"Hello, welcome to Daini Ramen Station, can I take your order?" He practically grumbled at them, not even attempting to hide the fact that he had hoped they would just leave before he could serve them. Unfortunately for him, any displeasure he had for Naruto was now going to intensify. As Sasuke gave his order, Naruto stared through the man, gazing upon the specials board for anything that could be interesting. What he found was a large bit of writing that read:

_**Family Unity Day Special:**_

_**Relativities get one free bowl each. **_

"and what will you have?" Naruto's attention was brought back onto the posh-sounding man. He'd heard him call Sasuke "sir" earlier but apparently the same luxury was not being afforded to him. In spite of this though, Naruto grinned wide as can be.

"Four miso pork bowls please. Also, we're brothers so we get one free one each."

Sasuke had to bite down on his finger to prevent a spat of laughter while the barman froze. There was no doubt in his mind that the boy in front of him was the dreaded nine-tails jinchuriki and that he could snap at any moment More importantly, the jinchuriki didn't have any siblings, and if he did, it wouldn't have been that other boy. The two in front of him were very clearly not brothers, in fact, he didn't know if they could've looked any-less alike then they already did.

"Take a picture, it'll last longer." Naruto's smarmy tone snapped him out his daze. The thought of fully denying the two service for their lies briefly crossed the man's mind, only for the same logic that Naruto had long known how to manipulate to quickly come into play. If he was dumb enough to be scared of Naruto because of the nine-tails, he wouldn't want to fuck around with him instead of biting the bullet and giving him a free bowl of ramen.

"It'll be ready shortly."

Naruto and Sasuke didn't even wait for him to leave hearing range to start laughing to each other.

* * *

The southern leaf river was a large waterbody that ran through one of Konoha's many forests. Since Naruto and Sasuke had begun to hang out, it had quickly become one of their favorite places to loiter around. Naruto appreciated the crisp smells that came from the trees mixing with the fresh, pure lake water as well as the visual of the sunlight bouncing through the prickly treetops. There was none of that today, with the grey skies and all. There was still a certain beauty to those grey skies, however. It made the trees look so still and solitary, it was almost as if they were watching the two, silently.

Sasuke found it strange how little he and Naruto actually talked in correspondence to how much time they spent around each other. It was almost like the other's presence was conversation enough for one of them. Maybe because they were so used to a lack of companionship, but just having someone next to them as they watched the river run by made it easier to focus on its beauty. This is also what Sasuke liked about the river. It was so quiet, the only sounds audible being the soft, gentle running of the stream and the occasional chirping of frogs on the riverbank (the latter probably being one of Naruto's reasons for liking it as well). He swore, if someone was even as close as the forests border, they'd be able to hear the two of them should they start talking at room-level.

"Hey, Sasuke?" Naruto said.

"Yeah?" Sasuke replied, not looking up from his back-down spot on the bank.

"Wanna play rafts?"

There it was. The silent serenity carried by the rivers current could _always_ be disrupted by those three words, because Sasuke _always _said yes. He'd never thought he'd ever actually want to play a game, much less one of Naruto's own creation, yet here he was.

Rafts was a simple game. Using assorted river materials (Leaves, stick, weeds, stones and the like) Naruto and Sasuke would both set out to make a raft that could reach the other side of the river faster. At first it had started out as a time-killer, with Naruto's boats always sinking and Sasuke's basic designs slowly making their way over to the destination (Naruto would demand that they stay and watch until it reached, just to make sure it wouldn't sink). Over the countless hours the two had spent playing though, they'd had begun to innovate further and further. The meta-game had only continued to deepen as both found counters for the others tricks.

At this moment in time, Naruto had actually managed to start winning their games by creating light-weight designs that speed past Sasuke's before any of his traps could begin to work. Today was no different, with Naruto gathering up smaller sticks and tying them together with the hard but flexible reeves that lay on the cusp of the riverbank (the boy's devotion to this game had become so intense that they would constantly head down to the Yamanaka Flower Shop in order to buy seeds should they ever pick the river clean of their naturally occurring ones). Sasuke's raft, in the meanwhile, was…interesting. Naruto sniggered as he saw the other ninja lay the finishing touches upon it. It was long, but uneven in favor of the right side. At it's helm was an almost hook like mechanism that came as a result of this. A bundle of sticks had been stabbed through the middle, creating a podium for a well-sized rock to sit upon.

The pair shuffled downwards towards the edges of the river, placing their boats on the waters surface with steady hands.

"Ready?" Naruto asked.

Sasuke nodded in response, eyes locked in a purgatory of calculative focus. With a slight push, both rafts went sailing forward, wooden basses brushing over the river's ripples and waves. At first, it looked like Naruto had synched another win. His raft sped forwards, gingerly maneuvering through the slight movements that ran along the stream. His grin was wide, until he realized just why Sasuke had made his boat so lopsided. With the complete imbalance of material, his boat forced itself towards Naruto's and due to its length, the other boy's was unable to out speed it. It hooked onto the lighter craft, tipping it self over in the process. For a brief second, Naruto thought Sasuke's boat had just self-destructed, only for the deliberately placed rock to smash through the lighter crafts center. With no way to sustain itself, Naruto's raft began to sink down to the ground, whereas Sasuke's continued to chug along to the finish, albeit sideways in the water.

"Damn it!" Naruto growled, clenching his fist as he watched Sasuke's monstrous creation sail towards the end goal. The Uchiha in question just smiled in victory…that was until his eyes spotted something sailing along the top of the riverbed. It was white, shiny, almost resembling porcelain in its shape. It must have been uprooted by his rock, since it definitely wasn't there before. It also probably wouldn't be there much longer, as it seemed to Sasuke as if it was sinking again at a rapid pace. Without even thinking, he shot forwards, water splashing up to his shorts.

"Huh?" Naruto said at first, an appropriate reaction considering Sasuke had just lunged forward at apparently nothing. "Hey, Sasuke, what the hell are you doing?!"

Sasuke didn't reply, acting like a man possessed as he weaved through the increasing pressure of the river. He'd gone down to around stomach level by the time he managed to clutch the object, snatching his hand through the bottom of the sea as it had disappeared from view. For a fleeting moment, he'd thought he'd been to late to catch the falling object but that thought soon faded away when his hand made contact with something smooth under the surface. He fished it upward almost immediately, with no concern for maybe _moving out of the water_. In his hands lay a shell, a bright white seashell.

_How'd it get out here?_ Sasuke thought. His question was justified, the nearest beach was nearly two hours away from here, but quickly forgotten as the sound of a shouting voice whipped against the back of his head.

"Sasuke, you moron! You'll fall over and drown, get your ass back up here!" Naruto bellowed.

"Right." Sasuke said, not until this moment realizing how far out he'd strode. Heading the Uzumaki's advice, he began to walk back towards the riverbank.

"The hell were you chasing anyway?"

Sasuke held his hand up to expose the small object. "Seashell."

Naruto squinted in confusion. "What's it doing down here?"

"That's why I chased it down." Sasuke replied, beginning to hold the shell up to his ear. The heart of the sea bled back out through its crevasses. It was like he could feel every wave that had been crashed, every ripple of water that had bled through the surface. Even those from years past.

_The thrashing, the calm and the overall balance of the sea, right in his ear._

As he felt his sandals dampen the leaves of the riverbed, Sasuke placed the shell back near his pocket, before realizing he shouldn't just hog it to himself. He gestured it back outwards Naruto.

"Have you ever heard it?"

Naruto's confused squint didn't widen by an inch.

"Hear it?"

Sasuke didn't even bother mocking Naruto for his lack of world knowledge. Instead, he simply passed him the shell.

"Hold it up to your ear."

Naruto did so without even thinking about it, clearly intrigued as to what "hearing" a shell entailed. A small part of Sasuke couldn't help but be excited for his reaction, but this small part of him was also left temporarily disappointed. For a few seconds, Naruto's expression remained blank and unimpressed. Then, before Sasuke knew it, his face broke out with its trademark grin, though it held more captivation than usual.

"Woah! That's so cool." Naruto smiled, as the rippling ocean stirred and roared through the shell. Sasuke nodded in agreement and that was the end of their conversation for the next few seconds. Naruto simply stood there, amazed by the reverberating echo of the waves between his ears. It was like he wasn't even near the lake anymore, instead he was far, far away, watching as beach flowed in front of him, crashing under itself. The sheer serenity in this moment was unmatched by anyt-

"Do you think there's little crabs walking through it, and that's what makes the sound?"

There it was. All the mystique embedded within the shell, destroyed by one sentence. Sasuke didn't even know how to react for the first few seconds, his face contorting in about seven different emotions as it tried to fully grasp what Naruto had just said.

"No, no, _**no**_. No, I don't think there's little crabs in the shell."

"Then how does it make that sound?"

"I don't know, I know it's not little crabs walking around inside it. You'd be able to see them."

"Maybe their just _**really **_small!"

Sasuke couldn't even muster up a response. It was like he wanted to be mad but couldn't, not in the face of such stupidity. It was such a stupid thing to say, made stupider by the fact that he knew Naruto wasn't completely joking, yet that was also what made it more endearing. He knew for _a fact_ that even if Naruto was just fooling around, there was a small part of his brain that had now become legitimately convinced that the sound of seashells was down to micronized crabs scampering around through it. He couldn't help but smile at that.

"Naruto, do you want to keep the shell?"

"I mean, don't you want it?"

"No. Consider it my…Family Unity Day gift."

A few seconds passed. Sasuke had expected Naruto to smile but not as hard as he did. There was a split second after he said it, that Naruto legitimately looked like he was about to cry but those feelings were quickly squashed in favor of an outstretched fist. Sasuke looked over it for a second, before raising his to meet it.

* * *

When Naruto got back home, he didn't do much. He boiled the water for his ramen, got in his pajamas and broke out the current volume of manga he was on for easy reading purposes. It was only five in the afternoon, but he liked lounging around the flat, even if it was just early in the evening. He flicked open the manga book to the small fold he'd put in his current page, keeping one eye on the stovetop and one eye on the panels. Something unrelated caught his eye through this set-up, however, something he'd forgotten to pack away. At a far corner of the room, sat the brown binder book that he'd thrown earlier. His brain told him to ignore it, but he couldn't. He placed down his volume, and quickly walked over to it, picking the folder up off the ground. His brain told him not to flip open a page, he couldn't do that either. He flipped it open to the back of the book, breaking his usual cycle of repetition. There were no new pictures or anything like that. Instead, there was a large block of red text.

"家族"

_Family _

Naruto stared back at the page for a few seconds, silently reading over it. In what felt like a minute later he calmly folded it back up and opened a drawer that he knew he rarely used. With careful hands, he placed the binder into the space. It was a tight fit, with how wide the book was, but he eventually managed to nestle it into the drawer's gap. Seconds after, he daintily placed the seashell on top of the leather cover, residual drops of water splashing over it.

Then he shut the drawer. It wasn't the last time he would even that night


	16. The Creation Of Chakra

Rain pattered down against the thin grass, running down it's blades before squelching into the soil. The shower of footsteps against the dirt send clumps of it flying up into the air, where it would further meet the rain. The harsh sound of the droplets hitting the ground served to amplify the angry, wild yells that bellowed through the forest, bouncing from tree to tree. A large wild hog galloped through the woodland, hooves sinking into the dirt as she chased the three ninjas in front of her. Their usual garbs were now obscured in favor of three matching rain-ponchos, one orange, one blue and one pink.

"_What the fuck were you thinking_?!" Sasuke shouted, as the hail-like raindrops rolled down his poncho's plastic. It was clear who his anger was directed towards as Sakura hadn't even gotten a chance to do anything before the bore had been set off. They weren't in any immediate danger, mind you, the tree climbing technique allowing them to soar through the forest's peaks with no immediate fear of the Boar.

"Shut up! It made sense in the moment!" Naruto yelled back, struggling to not only focus on maintain solid chakra flow but also yell at Sasuke over the occasional crack of thunder that would ring out. Despite the poncho's protection, water had managed to drip into his hair. Its color shifted from its usual bright yellow into a somewhat muted dark blond.

"What'd he do?" Sakura asked as the trio of genin parked themselves on a particularly sturdy looking tree. Their vastly superior speed had let them gain a decent bit of distance on the creature, though this did nothing to stop its oncoming assault.

"If he'd just used shadow clones to get the fucking thing to the trap, we'd be fine but _**nope!**_ He turned to me with a big fat smile on his face and went "Sasuke look at this!" and then he kicked the boar in the leg!" Sasuke ranted, while Naruto pouted to the side. They'd received a report that a wild boar had stumbled into the more public-areas of one of the west Konoha forests. Due to the forests naturally large trees and easy navigation, the Hokage had sent Team Seven to escort it back to its natural habitat. The plan had been simple, they'd lure it over to a classic "leaves placed over a big hole trap", it'd fall in and Kakashi would escort it back safely. This had been thrown out the window when instead of using shadow clones, Naruto had done exactly what Sasuke said.

Sakura turned to him with a questioning gaze. "Why would you do that?"

"I was trying to sweep it off it's feet so then we could just carry it back!" Naruto responded defensively. This was so stupid that Sakura's brain temporarily short-circuited. You could see her hand start to move in what was probably an attempt to scold Naruto, before it just stopped after she realized what he'd said. There were too many questions. Why hadn't he just used the shadow clones? Why had he only tried to sweep one leg when the boar had four? It was a big boar; how did he think he and Sasuke were going to effectively carry it if it wasn't even knocked out? Overall, her thoughts were too varied and vast to be successfully communicated, so she said just one thing.

"_What?!_"

That summed it up pretty nicely.

"Also, that's bullshit. I've seen dogs with brooms in their mouths that swept better than that kick did. What's the real reason you kicked it?" Sasuke added on. Naruto briefly curled his lips up over themselves, before settling with a slight smile.

"Okay, okay…I thought it would make a funny sound."

This may actually have been dumber than the fake reason he'd given, a fact which was clearly shown by how Sasuke and Sakura just silently stared back at him.

"What?! C'mon Sasuke, it was pretty funny! I was like "_**blamp**_!"" Naruto said, ending his sentence with a surprisingly decent impression of the animal. Sakura tilted her focus towards Sasuke, who was holding a hand over his mouth in an attempt to make it seem like he hadn't just laughed a little bit at the sound. Both of his friends saw through this though, with Naruto outright calling him out on it.

"See! You laughed then, and you laughed when I kicked it too."

"Well, it depends what constitutes a laugh-"

"Don't give me that bullshit. You _laughed_."

"I exhaled through my nose but my mouth didn't move."

"That's a laugh!"

"No, it's not. Look- "Sasuke quickly snorted outwards and turned back to Naruto. "That's not a laugh. For all you know I could've been clearing my nose."

"Yeah, but you weren't! You were _laughing_ at my funny joke."

"No, I wasn't! Sakura, does a nose exhale count as a laugh?"

Sakura brought a thoughtful finger up to her cheek, staying stagnant on the tree for a few second.

"…If you did it in response to his joke, then that counts as a laugh,"

"_HA!_" Naruto exclaimed, as the Uchiha boy slammed his hands down in anger. He fell silent for a few seconds, attempting to gather up something of a counterargument, before turning back to the other two.

"But, let's just clarify something- "

"Oh, here we go." Naruto jeered.

"I wasn't laughing atthe joke itself; I was laughing at how lame it was."

"That's still laughing at the joke though." Sakura pointed out.

"Yeah, but I don't think Naruto's intention was to make me laugh at how he said-" Sasuke's voice was brought to a mocking tone. ""_Hey Sasuke, look at this!""_

"Shut up asshole, you're just putting words in my mouth now."

"**That's literally something you said!**"

_**CRACK!**_

Any conversation was halted by the feeling of the wood moving below them. An animalistic growl from below indicated that the boar had caught up to them. The initial swell of fear between them was very small, until they looked down and realized how sharp the boar's tusks were, as well, as how smart he was apparently. Instead of continually charging against the tree like an oaf, the boar was using his tusks to slowly but surely tear through the wood.

"Fuck! We need to negotiate a truce with him, like right now!" Naruto screamed as the tree wobbled once more.

"Oh, and how would you propose we do that?!" Sasuke asked, more terror present in his tone than usual.

"It can't be that hard. Ya' know boar brains are just as big as human brains?"

"_That doesn't mean they're as smart as us_**!**" Sasuke growled once more, having to shout to make his voice heard over the intensifying raindrops. Before either of the two boys could proceed into what was sure to be another dozen or so pointless squabbles, Sakura sprung upwards, tentatively balancing herself on the branch.

"Quick! We need to circle round so he can't see us. Then Naruto can cast a shadow clone and lead him off." She explained, plan earning head nods from her squadmates. They wasted little time putting it in motion, their chakra flow resuming its position at their feet. As they curved around the other side of the tree, it's general lack of width forced them to assume an almost totem-pole like formation length-wise. This proved incredibly difficult, with the rain water that ran through the crevasses of the bark disrupting some of the technique's effectiveness. Chakra walking allowed the user to stick to any surface they pleased, and while the rain water didn't do anything to actually void the use of chakra by itself, its slippery texture served to make it that much easier to lose your footing. As a result, Naruto was rather urgent in his summoning of the shadow clones.

Immediately after said summoning, the clone dashed down the tree, reaching the ground _just in time_ to meet the boar's gaze. It immediately began to give chase, charging after "Naruto" with a loud growl while the rest of Team Seven let out a small sigh of relief that any danger had been sent running out of the area. They still stayed up near the treetops for the moment though, only fully touching the ground when the clone dispersed. With it brung forth the memories of the clone, which included the boar tumbling into the large pit after being duped by a fake-out jump. Not so long after, Kakashi emerged from the tree, small torn tuffs of rope being attatched to his gloves

"Good work out there, you three." He said. "I put in under paralysis. Chunin'll be down here in a few minutes to pick the thing up."

"Will we have to watch over it until they arrive sensei?" Sakura asked, question stemming from a precedent. Kakashi briefly thought it over before returning his eyeline to the trio.

"I don't think we will. I've got summoning dogs watching the area. If it does by chance make a miraculous recovery, I'll know before it can do anything."

Sakura nodded her head in acknowledgment, while Naruto felt his stomach rumble.

"Well, if we can just leave, I'm going over to…" He rustled through his pockets, eventually picking up a small, cream-colored slip of paper. His eyes briefly scanned over it, attempting to read something that was shown on it. "…Tetsuo Ramen House!"

"Off of Ichiraku are we?" Kakashi asked with a strange swell of disappointment in his voice. The emotion turned out to be unfounded as Naruto immediately went on the defensive, flailing his arms about like a maniac.

"No way! I've just got a voucher for this one, is all!"

"How'd you get that voucher?" Sakura suddenly asked him, clearly suspicious. After all, aside from maybe Iruka, the only people he could think of that would give Naruto a voucher were all currently standing around him waiting to see who gave him the voucher.

"Oh, Old Man Third gives me tons of 'em. Cause I don't have parents ya' know? I'm sure Sasuke gets them all the time as well."

"Yeah, of course." The look Sasuke flashed to Sakura right after he said this indicated that he was lying.

"Anyway, do you guys want to come? This voucher gives me three free bowls."

"Sure." Sasuke said.

"Sorry, I can't. My mum would probably throw a fit if I was late back home." Sakura added, face flush with an unbecoming embarrassment. Both Naruto and Sasuke turned their attention towards Kakashi, who had become visibly bored.

"I can't either. I have a _meeting _with Lord Third." He grimaced through his mask while the rain trickled down the nylon of the flak jacket. To be having a meeting with the leader of the whole village was way too big of a thing to just be casually dropped into conversation like that, something the Uchiha boy noticed.

"Wow, that's a real left-field choice for his successor." Sasuke sarcastically shot back, earning a loud laugh from Naruto.

"Can you imagine? No one would ever get anything done." He said, in-between bouts of laughter. Kakashi raised an eyebrow in intentionally comedic ire.

"Careful with that pre-mature treason you two."

Naruto and Sasuke didn't listen to the advice, walking off while laughing over any different scenario they could come up with that involved Kakashi being Hokage. Sakura followed along with them, waving a goodbye to her teacher. The copy ninja simply raised up a hand to replicate the effect. Soon enough, the three of them had disappeared into the rain leaving Kakashi standing there alone. He let out a loud sight to no one in particular, before beginning to walk towards the Hokage building.

* * *

It would be rude to describe the Hokage as "annoying". Maybe because of that term had child-like connotations towards it that were inaccurate. Kakashi had met with Hiruzen a few times, and the one word that he could describe him as is "rambling". Yes, that was the word. When he got going, Hiruzen could talk for years and not notice the time fly by. Maybe it was because Hiruzen had lived through so many eras of shinobi, that he just had so many things to say or maybe it could've been that being the longest-serving Hokage in history and your only companionship being Danzo Shimura was a combination for boredom.

"More tea, Kakashi?" Hiruzen asked him, snapping the man out his inner-monologues.

"Yes, please." Kakashi said, prompting Hiruzen to take hold of the small porcelain pot that had sat between them. The sitting room was nice, mostly beige in color. There was little furniture aside from a small desk that held assorted pipes toward the back. Hiruzen was never a big fan of furniture in the first place, often times complaining that it "hurt his back". This a clever exploitation of his age that he used to indulge in floormats and the like (as shown by the ancient scrolls and writing that were littered around the Hokage buildings walls, Hiruzen was still enamored by Senju-era ways of living and didn't want to give them up). Despite his usual grumpy demeanor, there was no doubt that Hiruzen could be mischievously cunning when he wanted too.

Kakashi took a quick sip from his cup. The tea was light, maybe a little too light for his tastes but he wasn't about to tell the most powerful man in the country that. Instead, he asked a question that really should've been addressed the second Kakashi walked into the room.

"Why exactly did you call me up here, Lord Hokage?"

Hiruzen sat there for a few seconds, as if he himself couldn't remember the reason, before shuffling slightly under himself.

"I wanted to discuss your team. Seven, correct?"

Kakashi nodded.

"What about them?"

"Kakashi, your team has completed an unprecedented number of missions for their time together."

"Is that right?"

"Yes, it is. Team Seven is completing missions at a rate and effectiveness we haven't seen since the Sannin."

"That's…great to hear." Kakashi said, briefly pausing to make sure his response didn't contain _too _much emotion.

"You're telling me. If we could get another Sannin like team, I'd be ecstatic." Hiruzen smiled but it was fleeting, as his eyes quickly became crooked with seriousness. "I'd just like to know if there was any…_dysfunction_, around them like there was with the Sannin."

Kakashi's response was instantaneous.

"None at all Lord Third. In fact, it's been a long time since I've seen a friendship as strong as the one between the three of them."

Hiruzen immediately relaxed upon hearing his statement, taking a sip of tea before speaking again.

"That's a weight of my shoulders. I will admit, I had my reservations about them considering their shared circumstances, especially Naruto and Sasuke. Those two, even just from their personalities…" Hiruzen paused to try and find the right words, only to come up empty. "I'm just glad to know their getting along. You more than anyone would know that that kind of yin-yang energy between friends works, wouldn't you Kakashi?"

Kakashi's smile was visible through his mask, obviously catching the Hokages tone.

"Yes, I would."

"Anyway, as a reward, I got you these. God knows they don't learn enough about it in the Academy."

The third reached a hand into the pockets of his robes and retrieved four slips of paper. Black font had been stamped onto them, identically spelling out the same words. He immediately realized what they were. They were tickets to the theatre.

_**Admission One: The Creation of Chakra **_

* * *

The entrance to the Konoha theatre was undoubtedly beautiful. Tobirama had had it installed, if Kakashi had remembered right, and even with Minato's refurbishing of it, there were still clear Senjuist decisions lingering in the architecture (made clearly apparent with the decorative carvings that were apparent in even the most benign of places).

"Wow, it looks so pretty." Sakura idly said, with the support pillars that held up the building looking way out of place in today's Konoha. It made sense as well, Konoha theater was only really celebrated by elders who had more money than the younger generations so anyone rebuilding it would do their best to keep the infrastructure at least somewhat close to its Senjuist roots. It should also have been noted that the theater scene in Konoha was awful, at least in Kakashi's opinion.

Maybe he was just too much of a "play purist" to be able to appreciate it. Afterall, he could still vividly recall using missions as opportunities to see Suna plays. That's where the theater scene truly blossomed and was a part of main-stream culture. Over here, plays were usually poorly-acted with sub-par visuals due to lack of innovation within the industry itself. The only joy he could take in watching the play they were about to see was that he'd already seen the Kiri version and could mentally laugh at the things that had been botched to hell in this one.

"Check this out!" His attention was quickly directed towards Naruto, who was holding out yet another voucher, this one embroidered with the words "Konoha Theater" on it. "I got this one a few years back and thought I'd _**never **_use it!"

"What do you get with it?" Sasuke asked.

"A free drink." Naruto bragged back, smugness lingering in his tone as if he was holding a Sage-given scroll in the middle of his hand instead of what was effectively just a can of soda.

"Right. I'll give you a hundred and fifty ryo for it." Sasuke said, squinting over the other boy's shoulder. Naruto almost fell for the trick, but Sasuke's too obvious glance gave it away. The Uzumaki boy spun on his heel, following his friends eyeline to the menu that lay over the bar. It read:

_**Assorted Soda- 250 Ryo**_

"Ah! Asshole, you almost got me!" Naruto growled, before reaffirming his grip on the voucher and making a beeline for the bar. "I'll be back in a sec."

Kakashi just continued to watch the streets outside through the glass framing of the theaters entrance. It wasn't as rainy as the other day, but there was still a bit of drizzle falling from the sky, hopefully the last of it. Kakashi liked the rain in short bursts, but after a weeks' worth of storms and thunder, you grew tired of not seeing the sun. It had been sunny the first time he'd been here, but the rain trickling along the glass made it seem so far away now. _So very far away_.

* * *

Naruto had to admit he was taking pause as he walked up to the bar. He'd retrieved a full menu from one of the little pamphlet holders on the wall and had no idea what any of these drinks were. He was used to drinking sodas that were more sugar than actual liquid, packaged in neon colors that were sure to make you stop as you passed it on the store shelf. These were all fancy sodas, their names being accompanied by words like "brewed" "bubbled" "sparkling" and others that Naruto understood in a regular context, but not when they related to _soda_. Eventually, he settled on a "grapefruit ricari" because it was the only one that had a word he actually understood. The man at the counter looked fairly normal, albeit bored, with his expression not changing as Naruto walked up to him.

"Hi, I'll have a "grapefruit ricari" please." By the way the man looked at him after he said that, Naruto could be sure he butchered the pronunciation to the point where the counterman had probably had to take a few seconds to try and decipher what he'd meant. It was about five seconds until it clicked, with the man grabbing a small bottle from under the bar and placing it back onto the countertop. It was glass, but unlike the bottled forms of soda Naruto would sometimes drink, the glass had been fancily stained into a purple color.

"That'll be two-hundred and fifty ryo please sir." The man said, only to be meet with the voucher that Naruto had been clinging onto. He picked it up, briefly analyzing it.

"That should cover it."

The man looked up at him with a confused look.

"No, it doesn't. This is expired."

There was a long stretch of silence, Naruto freezing up as the information that had just been told to him tried to work itself into his brain. It was almost creepy the way he just stood there; eyes dopey with a thousand-yard stare. Then, suddenly, he burst back to life with renewed vigor. He snatched the voucher back out of the counterman's hand before said man had even realized he was once again moving. There was a real ferociousness in his gaze as he scanned over the paper, doing a good job of making the act of reading seem intense.

"No! See, the 5th of May, that's _today!_"

"Exactly, it expires today." The man shot back unimpressed.

"Wrong! It expires at the end of today, that's what expires today means."

"Well, that's not what it means here buddy. Store policy says- "He closed his eyes as he attempted to launch into some monologue, only to be cut off by Naruto poking his tongue out and crossing his eyes.

"" _Store policy says-_ ""He mocked with child-like snark.

There was a brief pause between the two of them.

"…Store policy-

""_Store policy- "" _

"…**Store policy**"

"" _Store policy_""

"Sir, if you don't stop, I'll be forced to call in security and have them escort you out of here."

This made Naruto halt his imitation game. He was unaware of Kakashi's distain for Konoha theatre, and had set in fought in the building under the impression that his teacher harbored a love for all things related to plays. This meant that he did not want to piss him off by being kicked out for mocking the guy at the bar. Instead, he decided to walk away the bigger man…for about five seconds, until he came back to utter one final rant at the other man.

"You are a conman, a thief and possibly a liar."

"Okay."

What followed this pathetic exchange as an equally awkward one where Naruto attempted to reach over the counter and grab the drink only for the man to pull it backwards out of his reach. For a split-second, Naruto's brain told him to jump over the counter and snatch the drink that way but he settled for simply walking away while shaking his fist in a way he didn't think anyone actually did outside of manga.

* * *

"It's complete bullshit- "

Sasuke nodded along with Naruto's ramblings, not really interested in paying them any mind. He was more focused on their surroundings, that being the theater room. The same pillars that stood proudly through the halls of the downstairs area were present here as well, creating a sort of "V" shape along its sides leading up to the main stage. The room was dimly lit, at least in comparison to the lobby, with its lack of illumination being tied to the lighting rig that had been positioned on the ceiling. Sasuke had noticed it while absent-mindedly flicking his sharingan on and off as he'd grown to do when he was bored. The lighting set-up seemed to be controlled with a combination of wires for moving the lights around, as well as lenses which would be placed over the lights to filter their brightness into different intensities and colors. He thought it was somewhat impressive.

What definitely, wasn't impressive was the rooms seating. Seriously, they must have miscalculated how many seats the auditorium could fit and not wanted to give up their initial estimate, because the chairs were literally the closest you could possibly get between them without having two people's heads be touching. It was fine for now, with Sasuke and Naruto being the only two in their section aside from a rich-looking man to the Uchiha's far left, but as soon as even Kakashi and Sakura came back from getting food, it'd be impossible to move without plonking into one another.

"Hey, what're you talking about?"

Speak of the devil, Sasuke thought. Sakura came walking down from the entrance, holding a box of what appeared to be miniature pastries of some sort. With the clear amusement on her face, she had obviously caught the tail-end of whatever Naruto had been going on about. All Sasuke had managed to catch from the other boys five minutes' worth of rambling, had been that there was some sort of miscommunication over the expiration date and consequently, Naruto had been forced to either pay for his drink or not use the coupon.

"The stupid counter-guy didn't let me use my coupon because he said it's out of date, even though it expires at the _end of today_. Said it was "store policy" or some bullshit like that. Moral of the story, that dudes a conman, a thief and possibly a liar, jury's still out on that last one."

From the way Sakura's cheeks temporarily puffed up, Sasuke could tell she desperately wanted to laugh but held it in as to not redirect Naruto's wrath towards herself. Her face quickly shuffled into something more questioning.

"But Naruto, the drinks are only two-hundred and fifty ryo. Don't you have that?"

"I do, but I shouldn't be having to spend that two-hundred and fifty ryo on _principal_."

"Right. Anyway, you want one of these." She held out the box over to Naruto, who looked at them with what almost looked like suspicion.

"What are they?"

"I can't pronounce the name, but their like little chocolate triangle things."

"Okay, thanks." Naruto grabbed one and immediately bit into it, chocolate filling slightly spilling over onto his cheek.

"Do you want one too Sasuke?"

"That'd be nice, thank you."

Just to hammer home how cramped the seating was, Sasuke somehow managed to _overreach_, by sheer virtue of not thinking Sakura could be that close to him. He soon corrected his mistake however, and grabbed one of the triangles. Then Sakura took her seat right next to him and he realized something incredibly bad. He was literally bunched up right next to her, to the point where her head was nearly on his shoulder as a result of both the forced closeness of the chair and the disparity in their heights. Story short, it was _weird _and it wasn't like she could really shuffle over to the right either, because then she'd just be doing the same to some random person or Kakashi, which would be _weirder. _This was assuming she could even realize anyway, because at the moment, she seemed completely oblivious (mainly because Sasuke couldn't hear Inner-Sakura screeching).

The burden fell on him to course correct, so he scuffled himself over to the side next to Naruto. The two of them were significantly closer in height, so it didn't look quite so awkward but there was an immediate roadblock. Naruto had been enjoying the space and wasn't going to give it up for (in his mind) no reason.

"Get off my side asshole!" Naruto lightly kicked his friend in the leg to try and repel him.

"I'm just moving slightly to the left." Sasuke kicked him back, a tad bit harder than Naruto had.

"Yeah, and by doing that you're stealing my territory."

"You've got no one next to you, so just move over a bit." As soon as the words came out, Sasuke realized how awful an argument that was.

"Uh, one, someone'll probably sit next to me later, there's barley anyone in this room yet. Secondly, Sakura doesn't have anyone next to her, why don't you ask her to move?"

"I can move." Sakura added.

"No, I didn't ask you to move I asked him to move."

"Well, I'm not moving so she's gonna have to move." Naruto's point was sloppy in its execution but undeniably sound in its logic.

"Look, just move your feet slightly to the side- "

"I'll move my foot slightly up your ass in a minute."

"You wouldn't be able too, I'm sitting."

As always, Naruto and Sasuke's squabbles quickly devolved into something far, far away from what they had been arguing about in the first place. This one was cruder than usual, and probably would have caused a slight scene had Kakashi not finally made his way back from the bathroom or wherever he'd been.

"You two. Settle down, no one who's here to watch the theatre wants to hear about this." Kakashi took his seat next to Sakura, as he'd been coming in from the right entrance. Realizing that Naruto would probably continue to kick his leg the whole night through should he continue on this crusade, Sasuke resumed his original position closer to Sakura.

"Goddamn, I always forget how cramped the seats are." Kakashi ideally murmured, scampering around in his chair.

"How much do you want to bet they promised the village a certain number of seats before they built it and then left it till last?" Sakura said with a laugh.

"Maybe they just wanted a really intimate theatre experience?" Sasuke added, with a small smirk. Once again, Sakura let out a giggle before taking another bite out of her chocolate triangle. The four of them continued to joke away, mostly about the small chairs, with the room gradually beginning to fill up with seats until, before any of them knew it, the lights began to dim. A small, suited woman started to give an introduction to the play that went entirely too long for Naruto's liking. The play was about Konoha's "rich, vibrant, varied" history, yeah, he got it. He couldn't wait to see how they sucked the Fourth Hokages deadbeat dick in this one.

The boy inwardly sighed, slumping his chin down into his hands as the woman's words began to become white noise. From the corner of his eye, however, he saw a small ray of light spinning around through the darkness. A set of three people made their way down the steps, two of them eventually nestling into their seats while the third was-

_That counter guy!_

Naruto's head exclaimed. He must've been leading a late couple to their seats, but Naruto wasn't focused on that. His gaze lingered on his long enough that when the man turned around, his eyes met Naruto's. Not wasting a second, Naruto made a "slashed throat" gesture which obviously repulsed the man, as he stormed off. He was half-ready to chase after him, but the sound of instruments on the main stage brought his attention back to the play at hand. The same lady who'd given the introduction sat off-stage and acted as a narrator.

"Our story starts with a girl. Kaguya Otsutsuki of the legendary Otsutsuki clan."

Violins began to play in the background, with ambient noises of frogs chirping being replicated in a surprisingly competent manner. The stage had been set with props that included a matte painting of a castle as the background. The girl who was portraying Kaguya sat next to a prop pond and tree, skin pale with long white hair that ran down her back. She ogled at the "water's edge" occasionally giving a long sigh.

"She wanted nothing more than a friend to keep her company, but due to the high-status of the Otsutsuki clan, she had none. She hadn't left the confines of the palace grounds even once, as she had no need. All her education was at home, and the Otsutsukis couldn't risk their prize daughter getting into hijinks. Kaguya was _tragically_ alone."

Kakashi noticed that the play had forgotten to mention that the Otsutsuki family single-handedly kick-started the Konoha slave-trade. It was unsurprising though, out of the two "chakra-creation" countries, Konoha's worship of the Otsutsukis went further then Kiri's, who generally kept their adoration capped at Hagoromo. The white-washing was not unexpected, but still annoying to Kakashi, only getting more noticeable as the Kaguya-centric section of the play continued. He had to admit, the production on it was surprisingly slick nevertheless, and the actress who played Kaguya was pretty good. Eventually, after the play had gone through a depiction of the consumption of the chakra fruit (an obvious myth), Kaguya had ran out to the pond to escape her parent's overbearing nature.

The violins returned in full force, as Kaguya began to sing a song number while doing over-dramatic chorography around the tree.

"_To be stuck here alone, is that my destiny_? _Bound along by the unyielding chains of my legacy?" _

The song was catchy, Kakashi gave it that. Suddenly, the lights dimmed on stage as well, with a cyan light being directed at Kaguya's hands while she clutched the tree. Sasuke briefly titled his head up, sharingan activated to try and get a closer look at the lighting rig in action before he quickly remembered that the sharingan glowed in the dark. Not intensely or anything, but enough that the guy behind him would be probably focused more on what he'd just saw then what was actually going on on stage. Speaking of on stage, the blue glow subsidized and light-beat piano started pumping through the air.

"Kaguya, possessing the chakra given to her by the fruit, discovered she had the power to tap into the realm of souls and infuse life within anything she pleased. That tree, receiving the amalgamation of her loneliness and sorrow, split into two beings known as the tree people, Kaguyas first friends."

Kakashi nearly burst out laughing as two men in whole body black and white suits walked out from under the tree. Now, as bullshit as it sounded, all evidence had pointed to Kaguya being able to restore life into objects and the like but the first beings she summoned were not called the _**fucking tree people**_. Kaguya's journal had always been treasured, and its writings, while still written in Otsutsukish (the language of all five nations, at least now) contained words that had been lost to time, including the name of the tree beings. The direct translation he'd heard was "Zetsutuates" but this was strongly suspected to be grammatically incorrect and was not considered fact. Off the back of this butchery of history, came a duo of falsehoods.

"Kaguya went on to share the newfound gift of chakra with the civilians."

Wrong. Kaguya had just been the first person (on record) to ever use it, and the Otsutsukis had stopped at nothing to monopolize that. It was only when they got word of civilians beginning to replicate her abilities (albeit without the power of life) by simply thinking about using chakra that the clan staged an event where Kaguya "gave" chakra to the masses.

"In what was apparently a miracle, Kaguya became pregnant despite never having intercourse with another person. Her power of life knew no bounds."

Obviously, this was bullshit. Kakaskhi didn't know the exact story, but it was heavily suspected that Kaguya had had an affair with a lower-level citizen. This was never confirmed, but it was really the only realistic option as Kaguya's "power of life" had only be noted as "instantly instilling life onto its target". Creating a working embryo inside herself was far beyond her capabilities, and wasn't even how her abilities worked anyways. Kakashi wanted to sigh, but he knew the people around him would start shooting him dirty looks, so he held it in. Maybe he'd come in expecting too much from the show, after all, Konoha was the polar opposite of a politically and historically informed village, that he knew all too well. He decided too just ogle at the production value for the next hour or so, and hey, this part was about Hagaromo, who he was generally interested in.

"At 56 ACC, Hagoromo Otsutsuki was birthed into the world."

The scene of Kaguya's labor on stage quickly shifted, to a small, white-robed child with brown hair fidgeting idly on the other side of the pond. His eyes had been masked with purple contact lenses that looked like they could fall out at any second. Kakashi immediately went back on his vow of "turning his brain off" and why wouldn't he? Now the production value wasn't even consistent.

"His birth had led to a startling discover. A dojutsu, called the Rinnegan."

Naruto audibly groaned as another song number started up, this time one about Hagaromo feeling isolated because of his eyes. It was boringly similar to the one that Kaguya had sung at the start of the play, and not by design either. Boredom had reached a fever pitch for all but one member of Team Seven, with Sakura actually seeming somewhat invested in what was going on the stage. Naruto and Sasuke, in the meanwhile had launched headfirst into a game of foot tag. The objective of the game was apparently to tap the other persons foot, making them have to tap yours back. Obviously, this game was quickly cut short when Naruto and Sasuke began to get to into it. Their stomps became loud enough that Hagaromo's actor awkwardly looked back at the audience in an attempt to try and see where the heavy sounds where coming from. The game was halted as Kakashi half-heartedly shushed them, but despite this, he probably found their antics more entertaining than what he was actually supposed to be focused on.

"At the age of eighteen, he emancipated from the Otsutsuki household and begun to walk the road of the six paths, discovering each and every facet of the Rinnegan."

Kakashi felt his one exposed eyelid subconsciously force itself to snap shut. He had read every available literary work in Konoha about the six paths, a dance routine where a dozen extras recapped a legendary story in about fifteen minutes with awful-chorography did nothing for him. The tale of Hagaromo walking the six paths of soul and mind deserved more than that, as it was only _the most important component of the modern-day Otsutsuki religion. _Hell, he could recap it in a matter of seconds and make it sound more interesting than the actor on stage singing it could.

The first path he discovered was the deva path, capable of manipulating gravitational pull. Hagaromo wandered the frigid snow-capped mountains of what would come to be known as Kumo, harsh winds yanking him down to the ground only for him to push himself back up. The Asura Path, he discovered in the midst of the initial Iwa civil war. By fighting in that war, he discovered how to smith and transmute weapons using only the elements present to him. The Human Path, with the ability to manipulate, distill and control chakra itself was found through deep meditation in the latter-to-be Konoha. Using the Rinnegan, he bridged the gap between spirit and reality with perfect balance. This would later become the basis for the ideology of Senjutsu. The Preta Path was derivative of this, Hagaromo mixing the Human Path with the basis of the earths movements that he found deep in the deserts of Suna (then called Sabbiah) to create the ability to redirect and reverse the flow of ninjutsu.

The Animal Path was devised when Hagoromo wandered the cold, damp forests of Kiri in winter, where he would observe how impressive the natural wildlife's survival instincts were in comparison to his own. With it, he gained complete control over his body's functions, allowing for self-thermoregulation and improved natural healing. Frostbite that racked his body was dispelled in a day thanks to his control over his own body heat and blood flow. Finally, the Uchu Path allowed him limited control over space-time, as he could cut through space itself as if it were solid object, as well as make objects of threat disappear into the nothingness of a far-away void.

Kakashi almost wanted to swear at how badly butchered all this had been, but then again, it made sense. The walking of the Six Paths was a big enough tale for its own play, which the Kiri version had been essentially. In this one though, it had been portrayed as brief filer for act one, probably because they wanted to talk about Hashirama, but then you can't even talk about the most important points of Hashirama, because those involve Madara, and you're not really allowed to talk about Madara. He supposed maybe this play could maybe be the genre breaking rebellious masterpiece that covered the Valley of The End and Tree of Remembrance, but considering how hard they'd been sucking up to Kaguya earlier in the play, he wouldn't be holding his breath.

"With his abilities mastered, it seemed like Hagaromo was ready to settle down into a normal life but he could not. Realizing the near omnipotence given to him by the rinnegan, he could only settle into a life of isolation. Keeping himself alive using the powers gifted to him by the dojutsu, Hagaromo went onto to live for the next three hundred years. That was, until a boy with a will forged in fire, and a mind sharpened by wind sought out his wisdom. That boy was named Hashirama Senju"

This had been the ending in the Kiri alternative, but here it was only set-up for the second act.

"Okay, we'll be taking a brief intermission now." The narrator had gotten up on the stage once more, lighting in the theatre switching back to a more illuminated appearance. Almost all of Team Seven let out a sigh of relief.

* * *

"That play straight-up sucks." Naruto said, slamming his hand down against the table. Sasuke nodded in agreement, while Kakashi grimaced his face into his hand.

"I agree. Having to sit through it all was more akin to torture than anything resembling entertainment."

"I thought it was okay." Sakura said, absent-mindedly slurping on her drink's straw.

"There's always one." Sasuke joked back.

"Well maybe it's because I'm fourteen and you guys are still thirteen. Maturity increases with age, so I just get the deep themes of the play." It was obvious from her tone and smile that she was being sarcastic, a fact which was at least somewhat lost on Naruto.

"Yeah, well, Kakashi-sensei's like, forty-five years old and he hates it too."

"Hold on. I'm not forty-five." Kakashi said, with a raised eyebrow.

"You look like you're forty-five." Naruto responded, bluntly.

"How would you know? You've never even seen my face."

"Sometimes you can just tell." Sakura added.

"Yeah, plus you know all that history stuff. Maybe, you're even _older_!" Naruto exclaimed, pointing a finger at Kakashi.

"How old are you anyway Kakashi?" Sasuke asked, ignoring the other two's barley-coherent ravings.

"I'm twenty-eight, twenty-nine in September."

"Do you think you could spoil the rest of the plot for us, so that we can skip out on seeing act two?" The Uchiha followed up his question with a completely different one.

"Well, I wouldn't want to spoil it for Sakura- "

"No, that's okay. I mean, the play was fine but not _that fine_"

Kakashi looked over the three of them for a second, weighing his options before the thought of just how tedious and boring it would be to sit back in the theatre for another hour informed him that there was only one.

"Fine. Hashirama is a member of the massive Senju clan, who were one of the clans responsible for the warring states period where in two clans both tried to stake their claim on Konoha land. Just to be clear, there are three periods of war in Shinobi history, even if only two of them are actually called wars. The Warring States Period is known as the First Shinobi World War, because of Suna interreference throughout the middle part of it. The Second Shinobi World War came late in Tobiramas reign as Hokage, and was Konoha, Suna and Iwa against Kiri and Kumo. Kiri never quite let up on their acts of aggression against Konoha though, and the Mist/Leaf tensions served as what was, in all reality, an on and off Third Shinobi World War that only truly ceased after, one, Minato Namikaze's death and, two, Mei Terumis democratic election to Mizukage."

"Where you involved in any wars, sensei?" Sakura asked, realizing that Kakashi wasn't _that much_ younger than Minato would've been when he died. The question weirdly caused the man to freeze up, if only for a second, before he said, in a tone lower than usual:

"Yes, I was involved in the middle third of the Leaf/Mist conflict."

"What about Lord First? What happened to him?" Naruto asked, surprisingly interested in the answer.

"Well, Hashirama clashed with Madara Uchiha for control over Konoha land."

Naruto and Sakura both turned to Sasuke with surprise. The Uchiha took it in stride, however, as over the years, he'd gotten used to the reaction. It wasn't unexpected that people would be curious when your elder was the most notorious terrorist in Shinboi history.

"Yep. He's my great-something grandfather."

"Woah, did you ever meet him?"

Sasukes face swirled up with a mix of annoyance and bafflement. "Naruto, do you know how old I would have to be to have been able to meet him?"

"Yes. Madara died fairly young as well. After the warring states period had settled down, he'd attempted to seize power from the newly appointed Hokage Hashirama only to get slain for good. This battle is known as "The Great Culmination" and was appropriately fought at the "Valley of The End". This was also the battle where Hashirama ended up with a serve injury to his stomach that rendered his once god-like chakra control stunted. He was still a capable leader, and ruled for a long while after, but he was never quite the same. If I can guess correct, this would probably run up to the end of the play, only with some nameless ninja being subbed in for Madara."

"We're not missing much then, are we?" Sasuke said, to which Kakashi nodded.

"_Act 2 is now starting, please return to your seats_." The voice of that same suited woman came bursting through the now-open doors of the auditorium. Every member of Team Seven locked eyes, as the reality of being stuck cramped up listening to some guy dressed as Hashirama jump around pretending to fight raced towards them.

"Should we leave?" Kakashi asked to which was answered by a unanimous "**Yes.**"

They quickly began to dart towards the exit, practically speed-walking. It almost went off without a hitch, _almost _being the key word, who's existence only came to be thanks to Naruto's wandering ears. They walked past the bar on their way out, which would've been fine under any other circumstance. Naruto didn't hate the counterman _that _much, at least, until he saw what he was doing. An attractive woman had walked up to the counter, holding a voucher identical to Naruto's.

"Hey, I have a voucher but it says it expires _today_. Does that mean at the end of the night or has it already expired?"

The counterman didn't hesitate.

"It expires at the end of the day, so you're all good." He said, adding a fake laugh at the end of his sentence.

Naruto saw red.

It was around ten minutes later that Kakashi emerged out from the theatre. In the meantime, Naruto, Sasuke and Sakura had been sat on the sidewalk, waiting on him. In Naruto's opinion, it hadn't been that bad. All he did was say that the counterman was "a conman, a thief and _definitely _a liar" before vaulting over the counter in an attempt to snatch the grapefruit drink from it's confines. It could've been worse is what he was saying.

"I think that went well." Kakashi said, having just talked to the theater manager.

"Really?" Naruto said, perking up somewhat.

"I was surprised too. The manager seemed really subdued about the whole thing. He emphasized that he held no ill-well to any of you."

"That's cool. Maybe if I can go talk to him- "Naruto started, only to be cut off.

"Oh, you're banned."

"What?!"

"Yep, for life. He does not want you in the theatre, he doesn't even want you near the theatre. In fact, we should probably get moving now."

"That's bullshit! Fuck him." Naruto growled, standing up to his feet.

"I mean, were you ever going to go back to the theatre though?" Sakura asked, her question giving Naruto pause. His angered expression eventually subsided into a pout.

"Yeah, I guess. Let's just go- "For some reason, Naruto sounded almost torn up about the fact that he could no longer go somewhere he really didn't want to go. It wasn't as much that he ever wanted to see a stage play again, and more so a natural reflex to his hated life of isolation. Nevertheless, the four of them began to move down the lane, heading home towards their respective houses. The sky was darkened through time, Kakashi guesstimating that it was somewhere between five and six at night. Street lanterns began to light up and storefronts had become more illuminated to try and pronounce themselves.

"Damn, all that over a stupid drink- "Naruto murmured to himself, sticking his hands in his pockets.

"Yeah, some stupid drink." Sasuke added, holding something out to Naruto. Something purple.

"_What?! _How'd you get this?" The Uzumaki boy exclaimed as he grasped the object in his palm. It was none other than the drink that had been rightfully his.

"I snatched it while the guy at the counter was busy dragging you away."

"Right on. Thanks, Sasuke!" Naruto beamed at him, before fixing his attention to the bottle. The look in his eyes resembled a predator eyeing up its prey, which only intensified as he unscrewed the bottle cap. He forcefully _shoved_ it into his mouth, taking a large gulp that sent the pink liquid bouncing around through the glass.

And then he promptly spat it out.

"Ah, this tastes like shit!" He exclaimed, rubbing a sleeve over his mouth in an attempt to remove even the slightest particle from his mouth. "Sasuke, taste this!"

"Fuck no."

"Come on, just a bit to see how bad it is."

"Nope."

"Oh? You scared of grapefruit or something?"

"I'm scared of the germs that are accumulating on that bottle because you stuffed it up your mouth like a goddamn lollypop."

Kakashi briefly looked backwards to observe the two bickering. No doubt it would turn out like it always did, with Naruto and Sasuke going off on something completely unrelated and Sakura having to play the neutral party yet there was still something entertaining about their squabbles. He didn't know quite what it was until he saw Naruto stomping around one more time It was because he remembered doing the same thing when he was young.

_That yin-yang energy between friends_.

He knew it better than anyone else.


	17. Pier-To-Peer Navigation

The foamy crest of the water washed through the grimy riverbank, bleeding into the leaves and muck that had long been bonded together. Kakashi watched it carefully, exposed eye moving to-and-fro as the water came home to roost before running back to the sea. The chirping of frogs reverberated from the dirt, bouncing through the cold air. It was one of those days were every breath was illuminated by a puff of smoke, where mittens or at the very least, deep pockets became necessities.

"Sensei, why'd you bring us out here?" Sakura asked. Kakashi had specifically instructed the three to wake up early, which would've been fine had you not taken into account the differing positions of each squad members overton window when defining "early". Despite Kakashi specifically stating that everyone should have arrived by six thirty, the actual arrival times where wildly different. Sasuke had arrived at the river thirty minutes early, while Sakura and Naruto had arrived fifteen minutes late. The latter two had largely different reasons for their tardiness though, with Sakura sleeping in and Naruto just not understanding that you couldn't fit waking up, a shower that turned into a bath, getting dressed and mapping out what route you needed to take in the ten minute timeframe that he'd given himself as he woke up.

"Well, I would usually allocate our time today for brushing up on fundamentals but in your case, there's a distinct lack of fundamentals to be brushed up upon."

"Training." Sasuke quickly said.

"Yes." Kakashi gently nodded.

The boy's words had a different meaning to the other two genin at stand-by than just indicating the obvious. A while back, after a particularly brutal day of training, Naruto had realized that there were two distinct sides to their teacher. "Training Kakashi" and "mission Kakashi". One was snappy and sharp; one was snappy and lazy. Training Kakashi saw everything they did, mission Kakashi purposely tried not to. It had become almost a secret code to the three teens, whichever one being the first to identify him calling out either "training" or "mission" quickly.

"So, what'll we be learning?" Sakura questioned, to which Kakashi indicated to the lake.

"Well, I'm kind of hoping to kill two birds with one stone today. We'll be firstly using the same basis as the tree-walking technique to begin walking on water. Secondly, I want to help the three of you develop your taijutsu further. From what I've seen, two out of the three of you are severely lacking in that area."

Suddenly, his foot slammed down against the dirt, sending a large, thin stick of what looked like bamboo shooting up into his hand.

"Two of you will practice that water walking jutsu, the left-over one will face me in a skirmish on the riverbank. Your goal will be to disarm me of this stick and then plant it in the ground before I can knock you out of a specific radius. Any questions"

The three genin nodded, as Kakashi scanned a finger along them.

"My first opponent will be…" His pendulum-like finger indicated that he was lost in thought, doing a series of mental coin flips to narrow down the selection. "Sasuke. You two go practice the basis of the water technique. Just don't get too far out, I don't want either of you drowning."

* * *

"Woah, _woah_." Naruto's feet sloshed over the water, his chakra control barley holding him up. In a futile attempt to try and keep his head above water, Naruto would shift chakra to one of his feet, using it like an anchor. This obviously didn't work, leading to Naruto getting knocked off balance and plummeting into the water. It was a few seconds before he shot back up, spitting a large shot of water out of his mouth as if he was a drinking fountain.

"Good shot." Sakura joked, somewhat taken about by how far he had managed to spit the liquid. She herself was on shaky legs, just barley managing to keep herself afloat. The basics of sticking to water were similar to that of the tree walking, but the differences between a solid and a liquid made it so that you couldn't just transfer your skills from one to the other.

"Sakura, do you have a secret for this one as well?" Naruto asked her, clutching his hand around his hair like you would when draining a sponge.

"If I did, I'd be doing _way_ better than I'm doing no-_Eck!_" She exclaimed, as she briefly started to sink under herself before course correcting. "I can't even take steps in the water. Kakashi said we have to try and move our chakra with the river's flow but even standing is difficult if you do it that way."

Naruto sighed in defeat, shifting to his back so he would float better. It was cold (no doubt Kakashi had intentionally picked today after reading this week's weather report) so even though his jacket was getting wet, he wasn't going to take it off. His gaze lingered up at the sky, taking in its color. It was obviously early, so the sun's awakening was still masked by lingering clouds that had delivered a sprinkle of rain before, but Naruto still thought it was pretty. Despite the clouds attempt to block out any light, pink tinges of sunrise still seeped through their lighter gaps. He must've stared at it for around thirty seconds before he realized the soft current was taking him backwards. He tried to scramble back up to his feet, forgetting he was in water. Instead of boosting him up, his flailing only served to make him sink a little bit deeper until he managed to shift chakra to his hands.

"Hey!" Sakura yelled, as Naruto climbed back into a standing position. His flailing seemed to have overruled the current that she had been basing her steps on, with ragged ripples replacing what had been a stable water top just moments before.

"My bad." He mumbled, only to then exacerbate the problem by falling face first downwards. Sakura would've laughed if she hadn't had to focus on the torrent of ripples that were now heading her way.

* * *

"Any questions?" Kakashi asked, crouched with the stick in his hand. He'd used it to draw a large circle around him and Sasuke, probably around six meters in length according to the Uchiha's calculations. If Sasuke were to be knocked out of the circle, he would "lose" the test, though any consequence of a loss was marginal. He'd just have to swap out with Naruto or Sakura for a while, so any stakes were more balanced upon his own sense of self-worth than anything else.

"If I get sent out of the circle in mid-air, does it still count as a loss?"

"I'd say it doesn't as long as your feet stay in the air, instead of a tree or something like that."

Sasuke nodded along with his teacher's instruction.

"Are you ready to start?" Kakashi asked, being met with another nod.

_**Crack!**_

Before Sasuke had even stabilized his head from it's bobbling, the stick came smashing into his abdomen. Normally, this would just hurt, but Kakashi's swing had enough strength behind it to send him flying back like a baseball. If he hadn't stuck his fingers out to slow his momentum, Sasuke would have been sent out of the circle in mere seconds. Instead, he came just _inches _away from that fate, fingertips slicing through the dirt ground as he tried to clutch on to it. By the time he'd regained his bearings, Kakashi was already in front of him, sharply kicking him in the side and sending him flying out of the area. Sasuke didn't completely lose hope, with the rule he'd just asked about being firmly lodged in the front of his mind. He just hadn't wanted to get into this predicament so quickly.

At the rate he was falling, he had probably three or four seconds before he hit the ground. He needed some sort of repellent to send him flying back-ways into the circle. A tree was the obvious answer, but that'd be a disqualification. Even a basic wind jutsu would save him but those were still far out of his capabilities.

_Unless._

The process of fire-style was something he'd learnt pretty early on in his academy training. He'd seen his brother use it and wanted to replicate it, only to end up having to suck on ice for the next week as a result. Still, he remembered the process that fire-style was based upon, and the included using chakra as a fuse. If he were to cut that process off early, he'd end up with minor burns but the makeshift explosion caused by it would also launch him backwards. That was his hypothesis anyway.

His hands were a blur as they moved through the hand signs for the phoenix flower. The burning sensation swelled up inside him, bubbling closer and closer to his lips. Just as it reached a fever pitch, Sasuke bit down against it, causing a makeshift explosion to go off in his mouth. His momentum completely shifted left, sending him flying over Kakashi's head and back into the safe-zone. Clumps of dirt shot up off the ground when he landed, owed entirely to the force of the impact. In less than three seconds, he'd had to come up with a plan that would completely reverse his trajectory. The landing hadn't exactly been his number one priority.

"Impressive." Kakashi said, transitioning the stick around so that it was mostly resting against his back. Sasuke could tell he was going to start playing defensive, and wouldn't put it past him to simply stall for the rest of the day. If he was going to get that staff, he would have to outwit Kakashi in taijutsu. A brief red tinge glazed over his vision, signifying that his sharingan had been successfully activated.

"Hm, there it is." Kakashi had been itching to see if Sasuke would bust out his sharingan in this fight, so the boy activating his dojutsu brought a small, invisible smile to his face. This could potentially be tricky as he didn't know Sasuke's sharingan ability, adding an unknown variable to the equation of combat. The rational part of him doubted that it was anything serious, as Sasuke would most likely not be able to use said ability without training from him or, at the very least, two tomoe. On this front, he was technically wrong. Sasuke could definitely use his ability. As far back as the fallout from the Wave, he'd been privy to its presence and could use it at will.

The only problem was, he didn't actually know what it did. All it seemed to be was a white flicker that obscured his vision for a split-second and then vanished. The only theory he'd had about it was that it either wasn't finished developing yet (which would be a first according to all known records of the sharingan) or it relied on some move from the enemy, that he obviously couldn't figure out on his own. He shoved this to the back of his mind as he began to charge at Kakashi, the older man not quite ready for the increase in speed. Sasuke delivered two kicks to Kakashi's side, one managing to get past unblocked. Kakashi stumbled back, attempting to retaliate with a whack of the stick, only for Sasuke's leg to immediately shot out in a block attempt. Kakashi halted the attack, too late to realize that his student had done the exact same thing.

The block had been a feint, Sasuke kicking dirt upwards into Kakashi's face. Despite the success of this attack, it may not have been the wisest idea to attempt to blind the person who only really used one eye in the first place. Kakashi wasn't some blind-master prodigy who could fight without even the slightest need of sight, but a temporary patch of dirt in his face was something he could definitely recover from. As Sasuke shot upward to try and grab onto the stick, Kakashi spun it backwards onto his shoulders. With the Uchiha boy now out of position, Kakashi spun it back around and hit him square in the forehead, hard enough to knock him off-balance. The Uchiha began to stumble backward, his lack of balance being premeditated in Kakashi's plan. Before he could regain his equilibrium, Kakashi rotated the stick around the opposite way, aiming where the last semblance of Sasuke's balance remained, his legs. There was very little force required to trip him up, so he went stumbling to the ground. It was too late that Kakashi realized this may have been his intention all along. Sasuke had braced himself for the inevitable tripping that would occur as soon as Kakashi had attempted to knock him over. With a sudden grip on the stick, he weaponized Kakashi's own attack against him, falling backwards with enough power in it to take the stick with him.

_**SLINKT!**_

Before the jonin had managed to understand the ploy, Sasuke had already sunk it into the ground by continuing his backwards roll. He ended up on his legs, flecks of dirt running up his frame.

"Impressive." Kakashi said, taking hold of the stick once more and uprooting it.

"Thanks." Sasuke mumbled, somewhat disappointed that his day would now mainly consist of the water-walking. Any pride he had on the part of besting Kakashi was menial, as he could tell his sensei was only putting in the effort to _match_ Sasuke, not to actually try and best him like he was in the bell test. Still, a win over Kakashi was _something _to be happy about, however large the asterisk that loomed over it was. He brought an arm up to his slightly chapped lips (having an explosion going off in your mouth, however nulled, would do that), wiping them clean

"Which of the others do you want next?"

Kakashi rubbed a hand against his chin, thinking for a moment.

"I think I'll observe how their water-walking is going."

* * *

He couldn't say he was impressed. Sakura was competent, at the least, being the only one who had managed to figure out that how to actually walk on water (even if her legs were wobbly) while Sasuke and Naruto scarcely found themselves in a situation where they weren't sinking.

"Good chakra control Sakura!" Kakashi called out, as he watched from the side of the river. "You two! Focus on reading the current."

Naruto took one step forward with the advice in mind, only for his foot to break through the water's surface like a loose floorboard. Obviously, upon seeing his friend go face first into the river, he wasn't that enthusiastic about having to replicate the action, especially with the weather. He gingerly placed one foot in front of the other, as if relearning how to walk, briefly bracing for the plummet only to find that he had managed to stabilize himself. Not well, mind you, but at least it painted a picture in Kakashi's mind of their respective chakra levels. When Sakura's feet touched the water, it resembled what you would think "walking on water" looked like. A slight ripple would run through the water top and then settle with every step. With Sasuke, the water would continue to squirm around his feet, as if it was _struggling _to keep him afloat. Naruto, in the meanwhile, almost stomped through the water with small geysers of froth uprooting from every step he took (which wasn't many considering just one would put him under the shroud of the sea)

The pair of boy's troubles were easy to diagnose. Distilling chakra to a certain part of the body added a decent amount of weight to it, enough to render chakra's magnetism useless. Sasuke was on the right track, with his chakra control still being above average when compared to a large majority of genin his age. Naruto on the other hand, was a special case. He had tremendous chakra reserves, that Kakashi had noted from the fight with Haku. It also seemed that his prior training in the academy had never actually taken this into account, causing him to use a relatively massive amount of chakra when he really thought he was using a percentile. He wondered just how much that defect manifested in Naruto's fighting style.

"Oy, Naruto!" He called out as the Uzumaki youth stumbled back to his feet. "Let's go work on your taijutsu."

Naruto beamed brightly, enthusiastically attempting to run over to Kakashi. Unfortunately, he neglected to remember the fact that he was incapable of actually running on water so that premature sprint quickly turned into freestyle swimming.

"_Ugh!_" He spat out some of the water that had gotten into his mouth, before standing straight back up. "Let's go Kakashi-sensei."

The older man said nothing as he led him away, leaving Sasuke and Sakura essentially unsupervised for the moment. The two of them quickly resumed their technique, with quite a clear contrast of quality. Sakura, soon enough, had become fully capable of walking without issue. F aster paces did well to trip her up, but with a simple walking speed, she could navigate the river with no issue. Her real objective now was to try and reverse her direction by walking backwards. She'd realized that it was, in all probability, a better idea to start with this than running as she'd grow more accustomed to trailing the waters direction without the fear of collapsing under herself.

Step by step, she walked back, as if relearning how to walk. The first few steps were difficult, with the kunoichi losing her footing initially but she soon got into the grove. All she had to do was mentally reverse the current in her mind as well as slightly increase the amount of chakra in her soles in case she slipped and needed to make a last second recovery. Soon enough, she began to feel completely comfortable walking backwards, almost as if she wasn't on water at all. Instead, she was on common ground, stranding herself up to-

_**THWACK!**_

The sudden feeling of backing into something almost caused her to tip off balance. Luckily, that excess chakra stabilized her, a fate that was not befallen to the person she'd obviously crashed into. A quick turn of her head revealed Sasuke, who was currently flailing around in the water.

"Ah! Sorry!" She squeaked, immediately reaching out a hand to try and help him pull himself up. Not thinking too much about it, he gripped onto it, barely managing to get back onto his feet even with the assistance.

"It's my bad. I was looking at my feet the whole time." He said, awkwardly stumbling as his feet threatened to give out on him from the water level.

"That's okay. I do it too most of the time, it's easier to tell where the currents going." Sakura said, twisting towards him slightly before having to move forward as the Uchiha boy fell back slightly.

"Right." Sasuke mumbled, trying to steady himself. It was in that moment that they both realized he'd still been clutching Sakura's hand. For a brief second, their eyes were caught in gridlock, both bracing to see if the other one would make the first move. Nothing of the sort came about, so they mutually put it upon themselves to try and break the chain in the most unawkward way possible. The exact opposite of this ended up happening, as the two of them pulling in opposite directions only caused their momentum to stall as their fingers locked. Eventually, Sasuke managed to unweave his hand from hers, but that was only after they'd long gone over the point of no return and it could no longer be ignored.

"_Sorry_." The unanimously said, voices overlapping. Both tried to come up with something else to say, but with the weight of embarrassment that was burning through them, the only things either managed to say were the first syllables of words before they cut themselves off, thinking it was best to just let the awkwardness ride itself out. Inner-Sakura was surprisingly intent to stay quiet as well. Instead of her usual berating, she'd curled up into a ball and had begun to comically weep to herself. When the sound of Sasuke audibly "tsk"-ing to himself became audible, that weeping became louder and _louder_.

_**Waaaaaaah!**_

* * *

"_Hyah!_" Naruto yelled, clones dispersing around him as Kakashi ducked and weaved through another one of his punches. Suffice to say, his teacher was both impressed and not at the same time. On one hand, his actual technique was far better than you'd expect from the person who nearly flunked the bell test because he stood in front of Kakashi for the whole hiding period. The taijutsu itself was not bad enough for Kakashi to dismantle with only the fundamentals of blocking and attacking, especially with the shadow clones backing Naruto up.

The biggest problem Kakashi found, was that Naruto natural balance was wonky. _Really _wonky. It had problem to be incredibly easy to bait him off balance by simply ducking around to the back of him. Instead of flowing with his natural momentum (a strategy that would be smart when taking into account how many moving elements his opponent would have to concentrate on in that case), Naruto seemed intent on halting any motion in favor of chasing Kakashi. This strategy lead to him crashing onto the ground one hundred percent of the time. Take for example, this current moment. Naruto leapt forwards, using a kneeling shadow clone as a booster, in an attempt to clock Kakashi with his fist. There was far too much downward momentum put onto this attack and it opened him up completely. Kakashi weaved to the side, using the stick to snipe him out of the air. The clone that had boosted him was quickly dispersed after a stomp, while Naruto landed hard on the ground. He rolled to the side, bringing him closer to the circles line. Two shadow clones appeared around him, both immediately beginning to rush forward at Kakashi.

This was somewhat tricky, if not all that intelligent, Kakashi thought. The clones had specifically distanced themselves enough from each other that if he were to take out one, then he'd leave himself open to an assault from the other. As they grew nearer, however, a plan of attack began to be visually spelt out to him. Taking a few seconds to think it through, he suddenly exploded into a bundle of speed, tossing the stick gently at the two clones. Specifically, he'd tossed the stick horizontally, so that _both _clones would be required to catch it. Before they could possibly react to this, he bounded over the two of them like something out of a high jump, launching his hand back and yanking the stick backwards. Since their balance and natural momentum were identical, if not worse than Naruto's, they were sent flying into the dirt were Kakashi easily disposed of them.

"Ah!" Naruto growled, as Kakashi easily closed the distance between them. The older man swung the stick at him, much like you would if you were holding a sword instead of a length of bamboo. That detail laid bare the true intention of the strike. If Naruto were to dodge it, he'd have to balance himself and fall back. Instead, he went completely flat footed and attempted to sock Kakashi in the jaw from where he was. Little did he know that the sword-like slash of the bamboo had actually been a feint, Kakashi pulling it back only to shoot it back up towards his chin. It hit hard enough to send Naruto flying back out of the circle. The boy's loss was cemented as pieces of dirt went flying from around his landing site.

"Yuck." Naruto groaned, sitting himself up to a seated stance and brushing the flecks of dirt off his track jacket. He tried to get as much of it out of him as he could before getting back to his feet and looking at Kakashi. "How'd I do?"

The jonin sighed, looking down at his student. "Well, at the very least your problems were easily unidentifiable."

"Huh?"

"There were two major flaws in your plan of attack. Firstly, your chakra control is dreadful."

Naruto pouted at the criticism, but its bluntness was earned. From the heavy aura that his shadow clones emitted, Kakashi could tell he was throwing away chakra as if he was scared that keeping too much of inside himself would kill him.

"Secondly, you don't seem to be taking advantage of your shadow clones as well as you could. You're overeager on the offensive and it leaves you open and off-balance."

Naruto stood there, grumbling with his hands in his pockets before turning to Kakashi. The pout was still visible on his face, and Kakashi was sure he was going to get an earful of complaints and excuses. But he didn't.

"So…how do I get better at those?" Naruto asked, eyes darting away in a pseudo-embarrassment as he asked the question. His wandering gaze and pocket-sheathed hands indicated the he wasn't exactly comfortable asking the question, but that was far better than what Kakashi had expected. With someone as boisterous and, at first glance, arrogant as Naruto was, any censure, however harsh, would usually cause them to freak out. Seeing him take it on the chin like he did made Kakashi think he didn't know Naruto as well as he thought he did.

"Well, I think everything ties back into your chakra control. You're using massive amounts of it for even things that require the bare minimum." He explained, tapping his chin. "This consequently causes your shadow clones to suffer. The vast amount of chakra you put in them causes them to become heavier and slower, so their easier to destroy. Until you figure out how to balance your chakra, any taijutsu fundamentals are unimportant."

"That's a lot to do, though! I can't just relearn how to use chakra!" Naruto protested, unprepared for the scope of what Kakashi was suggesting.

"No, you can't. But you can refine your current technique." Kakashi crouched beside Naruto so he could further assist the boy's movements. "Start using chakra. As little as you can"

"Uh, okay." Naruto did as requested, blue strands of energy faintly stitching themselves around him.

"Now, imagine you are a tap, and the chakra is the water. There's a glass in front of you, and you want to fill it up, but if you put too much water in the glass, it'll spill. Your chakra attacks are that glass."

The Uzumaki boy's aura began to become for tangible as he followed the advice, closing his eyes to improve his focus. For a few seconds, he remained stable, the chakra becoming bolder and bolder before suddenly, it became too bright. Leaves that had drifted to the ground were sent shooting back upward, as Naruto nearly dug himself into the ground due to the power of his chakra. The sudden shift of gravity sent Naruto collapsing downwards onto the ground, though he was quick back onto his feet.

"Was that better Kakashi-sensei?" He asked to which Kakashi had to try and find the nicest way to explain that it was only better because with how Naruto had been using his chakra prior to this, he would've exploded immediately instead taking a few seconds too.

"Yes. Just try to cut off your usage before the end where you implode in on yourself." The advice was barely truthful. Naruto still had a long road ahead of him before his chakra control could be considered anything other than bad, so controlling it would not be as simple as just being able to put a cap on it before it broke through restriction. Whether he could effectively shape the vast amount of chakra he had could also be an issue, but one that would need to be taken care of after he actually started to use it successfully.

"Naruto, I think you should go practice on the water for the rest of the day. It'll help your chakra control."

"Right." Naruto said as he began to walk off, slightly disheartened that he would most likely not be sparring against Kakashi again.

"Oh, and while you're there, could you send Sakura over?"

"On it." The boy said, having to yell as he was already a fair bit away from Kakashi when the order had been issued. He walked slowly back down to the riverbank, which gave Kakashi a bit of time to crunch the numbers in his head. They had three months, which was a lot of time, but there were gaping holes in Team Seven's basics that would need to be addressed. Simply not attending would be neigh impossible with how enthusiastic Hiruzen had been about them.

Sasuke was technically sound, and incredibly intelligent when it came to strategy, but he was over reliant on kick feints and natural talent. Any mistakes that were apparent in his game were concealed by his prodigy-like taijutsu and fire style but those mistakes were still there, amplified by the manifestation of his sharingan. If Sasuke were to run low on chakra, those mistakes would become incredibly lethal. Naruto essentially had the same problem; except he lacked the finesse and talent to mask those mistakes at all. At the very least though, his taijutsu had enough power behind it that it physically hurt to block and his application of shadow clones showed sparks of creativity that Kakashi didn't think he had. Too bad his chakra control meant he was essentially fighting with one hand tied behind his back.

Sakura was his biggest concern out of the three. No apparent talent for any non-basic ninjutsu or genjutsu, physically weaker than Naruto while also being strategically slower than Sasuke. She was definitely book-smart and _crafty_, but her best showings of this (her tree leave kamikaze, and the shattering of the ice mirrors) were all when she was under no apparent danger from an actual foe. She was definitely the one in most dire need of improvement, but in exactly what way was what remained to be seen. It didn't bother him _too _much.

They had a few more months until the exams after all.

* * *

Naruto wobbled and squirmed under himself, waving his hands in the air to try and increase his aerodynamic capability. It was a bit difficult to focus on the glass of water analogy when you were literally standing on water. Even when he managed to clear his mind, it remained hard to stay afloat. It was like he was a magnet and the water was…another magnet. He could barely take steps less the floor crumple out from underneath him.

_**SMACK!**_

Naruto completely lost balance and fell forwards, but his misfortune didn't end there. In a frankly stupid attempt to try and keep above water, he shifted all his chakra to his front side, which only made him bounce off the water top and sink through the water on his back. By the time he'd managed to poke his head up once more, he caught Sasuke looking at him through the corner of his eye. His lips were contorted to the right somewhat, stretching in something that couldn't be called a smile but was definitely more upbeat than his usual blank-faced expression. Naruto realized it immediately as the face Sasuke made when he was forced to hold in a laugh.

The Uzumaki boy distinctly remembered him making the same face after the two of them had been shopping for food. They'd quickly realized that with their collective Konoha state allowances, they could bulk buy fruit and the like for the discounted value that came with bulk buying. Sasuke would go into the shop, buy 24 apples instead of his usual 12 and then split them with Naruto for an amount that ended up being the same price that they usually spent. Now they received the same number of apples for a reduced amount of cash. It was a surprisingly ingenious scheme (especially when you realized Naruto was the one who suggested it), but the last time they'd tried it, something had gone very wrong. The pair had decided they wanted to walk the rooftops for a little bit, and were in the process of transporting their cart of apples upwards when Naruto had fumbled his grip and spent a hectic rain of apples onto the passersby below. What felt like an hours' worth of lectures from random people later, Naruto caught Sasuke's lips furrowing like they were now.

"Hey, asshole!" Naruto growled, clumsily getting back onto his feet. "Your mouth better tilt back to normal or I'm gonna walk over there and beat the shit out of you!"

"Good one. You were literally struggling to take a step two seconds ago." Sasuke replied, nearly shifting his face into a full-on smirk.

"I'm just warming up."

"You're warming up by looking like an alcoholic trying to walk in a straight line?"

"Hey shut up- "

"-Wobbly as fuck." Sasuke talked over the top of whatever point Naruto was trying to make which actually gave the usually motormouthed ninja pause. Silence replaced time that Sasuke was certain would've been allocated to Naruto screaming obscenities at him was instead devoted to the boy clasping his hands together. His face became one of neutralized Zen, as he imagined the flowing of the water through the pipes, it's fluidized synergy rippling within every single-

"_How's this for wobbly_!" He yelled, dashing on top of the water.

"Oh shit." Sasuke exclaimed instinctively. Naruto was surprisingly fast, and while he obviously wasn't going to do anything that would actually hurt Sasuke, the Uchiha realized that being body slammed either into or onto the river wouldn't be a fun experience. It didn't help that Naruto was actually surprisingly fast, crossing the distance of the water before it could think about falling out from under him. He hurtled forward; fists clenched. His form rocketed closer and closer, getting _just _within striking distance of Sasuke before the Uchiha ducked to the side with his foot extended. Naruto comically pratfalled over the trip, face-planting into the water with a laughable _**plop**_ sound.

Immediately, Naruto began thrashing around within the water, but the rage-powered momentum he'd previously managed to hone was long gone. He couldn't even maneuver himself up to his feet until Sasuke offered him a hand (which proved difficult because it wasn't like Sasuke had much in the way of equilibrium himself). Naruto took it, only for Sasuke to quickly realize that the other boy was significantly heavier than he'd thought he was. The initial attempt to lift Naruto only ended with the Uzumaki being set down once more.

"Oh haha, really funny." Naruto grumbled as his blond mop of hair once again grazed over the water top.

"I'm not doing it on purpose. God Naruto, what have you been eating?" Sasuke grumbled, struggling to keep his grip on his friends' hand. At the very least, it was a good training exercise to try and keep them both from sinking.

"Nothing! Well, even if I did eat something, I burnt it off!" Naruto replied, swinging his arms around in protest. This action was quick to make Sasuke annoyed, god knows it was hard enough to keep a hold on Naruto _before _he started flapping like a madman. Upon closer inspection though, it may have actually revealed the root cause of the problem. In his frenzy, Naruto's hand brushed against his jacket, sending a fucking tidal wave of water coasting down his neck.

"Take the jacket off."

"Huh?"

"Take your jacket off. It's like a goddamn sponge." He grunted. It took a few seconds for it to register with Naruto. There was a small glimpse of hesitation, before he unzipped the jacket and took it off. Luckily for him, it's puffer like texture meant that it would float as tried to make his way back to his feet. Sasuke pulled back with enough force to get Naruto above water for the moment while he shuffled chakra to his lower body. It wasn't difficult to stay on top of the water while sitting down because of the larger surface area, a fact which Naruto took full advantage of as he reshuffled himself. To Sasuke's surprise, he didn't immediately stand back up and instead retrieved his floating jacket.

"Thanks." Naruto said, as he twisted the jackets fabric as if it were a washcloth. A stream of water sprinkled down into the river, its imagery creating a strange sense of unease in Sasuke. This unease only worsened when Naruto seemingly refused to stand up. Instead, he just sat motionless for a few seconds. His eyes were focused squarely on the water, limbs relaxed whereas they were usually rigid with energy.

"What are you doing?" Sasuke asked after a few seconds, flummoxed by the fact that Naruto had not instantly bounded onto his feet (or at least tried to).

"I'm taking five."

Sasukes eyes widened. It was like, in the last two seconds, Naruto had been replaced with a completely different person because the Naruto he knew _did not take fives_. Hell, he didn't take **ones** even when he should've but it was clear from everything to his expression to the way his hair cartoonishly drooped over his features that Naruto was legitimately disheartened for reasons Sasuke couldn't figure out. It bothered him more than he expected it to.

"That's new for you."

"Well, ya know, everyone has to rest once in a while." Naruto said with an uncharacteristic lack of emotion. Sasuke was honestly just…baffled. It wasn't like Naruto had never failed before, in fact, he'd failed _significantly_ worse than not being able to walk on water well so for him to shut off so completely was just odd. Sasuke dug his hands into his pockets with more aggression than intended.

_**Sling!**_

Naruto gave a brief look up at the sound, which belonged to a kunai Sasuke had thrown. The knife splashed downward into the river. That look quickly turned towards Sasuke, who returned it in full.

"First one to make it over there and get it wins." Sasuke said, hands stuffed in his pockets. His throw had been good with the knife landing a fair way away. It was so far away that Naruto doubted _either _of them would be able to get to it without simply swimming which showed in his face. He looked back down at the water, murmuring.

"Well, I don't know- "He hummed, reluctance once more taking Sasuke off-guard. Guard was exactly what he needed in this situation though as even the smallest display of confusion was all Naruto needed to strike. "-_**Sucked in!**_"

"Wha- "Before Sasuke could even realize what was happening, Naruto's arm had shot out and sweeped him off the ground. Sasuke's water walking was thrown off completely as he spiraled to the ground, becoming submerged in the lake. He couldn't be mad though. It was because he'd managed to kickstart Naruto's hyperactivity back to a less disconcerting pace. Or maybe it was because Naruto was so bad at water walking that he'd immediately eaten shit as soon as he'd tripped Sasuke up.

Either or.

* * *

Sakura leapt back, sending leaves at the wake of her feet as she dodged out of harms way. Kakashi had latched onto the offensive from the get-go, which she was not prepared for. She'd thought he'd be more cautious with his attacks, but instead he'd nearly tossed her out of the circle in the first seconds of the fight. Red marks ran down her skin where Kakashi had tagged her with the stick but the pain that radiated from them was nothing compared to the one that shot through her mind at every single opportunity for attack that she saw. They were there, almost glaringly so, openings in Kakashi's movements that left him prime for a counter yet her mind refused to act upon their sighting.

They were intentional of course, aside from the first. Kakashi had noticed Sakura's hesitation early, after he swung too hard on a kick and she apparently refused to follow through. Now, even when the openings for attacks were coming a few times a second, she still wouldn't attempt a counter of her own. It was strange, the basis of her taijutsu style was decent, more decent that Kakashi expected, but she refused to latch onto easy opportunities to punish his (intentionally) reckless fighting style. This meant that Kakashi could swing for the fences as hard as he wanted with no fear of having to defend.

_**WHACK!**_

He feinted out a swing of his stick with an overhead axe-kick that took way too long to execute. Sakura still didn't attack. Instead, she dodged backwards which obviously wasn't viable because Kakashi could keep swinging forever while Sakura would eventually dodge herself out of the outline of the circle and lose. Something Kakashi noticed, however, was that she obviously recognized the chinks in his armor. For a split-second, it would look like she was about to capitalize on them before she visibly changed her mind. This sudden switch only made her more reliant on defense and allowed Kakashi to further control the fight.

The stick slashed through the air, Sakura barley managing to roll out of the way. In a sudden shift of tactics, she ran towards Kakashi before leaping up and attempting to kick the stick out of his hands. It was a dead end of an idea, with Kakashi just using the stick to block the kick before it could even hope to disarm him of the weapon. Sakura, realizing this, launched backwards off the stick like a springboard before beginning to circle her teacher. The scraping of her feet over the leaf trail queued Kakashi into her location even with his vision focused elsewhere. His elbow shot backwards, intentionally skewed a few inches off from where he thought Sakura was. She spun around him, meaning she had a completely open shot on the offensive. Kakashi's elbow was pulled back, and his other hand was too busy to block anything. He was crouched down so unless he was going to pull out some real limbo shit, Sakura had a free move.

For a fleeting moment, it looked like Sakura might make the most of it and snatch the stick out of his hands. It was not to be. Sensing he might be able to counter, Sakura dodged backward. The next few moments went through in a blur. First Kakashi was open on the ground, then he wasn't there at all. At one moment, Sakura had control of the situation and the next she was being forcibly thrown out of the circle. The copy ninjas speed was so great that it took _seconds _for Sakura to realize she had, one, lost and, two, been ragdolled onto the ground. She stood up suddenly, looking down at her hands which had now been covered in stray leaves.

"Huh?" The she looked up and realized what had happened. Kakashi was in the circle, she was not. She'd lost, and really easily at that.

_I didn't even see him move…How fast is he? _

"You should try capitalizing on your opportunities more." Kakashi said, tone clear and sharp enough to cause her to look up.

"What?"

"Those openings were intentional Sakura." Her eyes widened slightly at this. To Kakashi it looked like shock. In reality, it was the effects of Inner-Sakura slapping herself across the head. Soon enough her expression switched from one of shock to one of disappointment.

"So, I'm guessing I didn't do well then?"

"No, not really." Kakashi was nothing if not blunt. "There will never be a situation in a fight where you'll be able to attack your opponent without risk of consequence. Well, maybe if you were fighting a toddler…"

The older man clutched his chin as if he were contemplating how you'd actually fight an actual baby before snapping back to attention." Anyway! You've generally got the basics down but it doesn't matter when you're so unwilling to go on the offensive. In a real fight, your foe will be nowhere near as sloppy and slow as I was there, so you'll have to make the most of the slim opportunities you'll have."

"Right. Sorry, sensei." Sakura mumbled, bowing her head in shame. Kakashi just sighed before taking a seat near the ground. He slumped his head into his hand lazily, exposed eye focused on the ground.

"Now what to do?" He murmured to nobody in particular (not even the student that was directly in front of him). Naruto was a non-factor unless he could sharpen his chakra control, Sasuke was in little need of maintenance and like Naruto, was probably learning more just running around on the water. That only left another few rounds with Sakura which he doubted she could win. Inner-Sakura agreed.

_**Well, let's face it, you suck big time. Time to go back to prancing around the river cause it's the only thing you can actually do. **_

"Sensei, fight me again." Sakura blurted, mouth moving quicker than her mind.

_**You're legitimately stupid**_.

"Hm?"

"I don't want to do it with your stick rules either. I just want to see if I can hit you."

Kakashi was surprised. Not surprised enough to make any audible or visual changes to what he had been doing just seconds before, but still surprised. An inexplainable amount of resolve had just swelled up inside the girl who had spent the last two minutes running away from her own potential attacks. However, he supposed neither of them had anything better to do.

"Alright." He said as he threw the stick squarely to the side. Hopefully Sakura would actually be able to take a swing by the end of the day. Her eyes looked up briefly. The sun was out in full force.

* * *

"Haha!"

"Get the fuck off me!" Sasuke yelled as Naruto's latest technique was put into action. The Uzumaki boy had sunk underwater and then shot up to grab Sasuke and pull him down too. What ensued was the most awkward "fight" that had ever transpired, consisting entirely of Naruto attempting not to get booted in the head.

* * *

Kakashi threw a series of kicks out in response, each one becoming more and more difficult to block just based on their intensity. The sun was beginning to fade now, if only slightly. She'd been knocked out of the circle eleven times. The kunoichi dodged out of the way of Kakashi's last kick, his balance being knocked off-center as it collided with the ground instead of her. An opportunity sprung forth from the broken ground, but it was one Sakura was too hesitant to take up. Upon realizing she wasn't going to attack, Kakashi once again began moving in a blur.

"_Not good enough._" He said, kicking Sakura in the shoulder hard enough to send her out of the circle once more.

* * *

"Eat it asshole, I'm ahead of you." Naruto said smugly, as he stood in front of Sasuke for literal seconds before Sasuke just took another step forward and matched him. Naruto immediately shoved Sasuke backward, only for the other ninja to let out a growl and latch onto his arm.

"Hey get off!"

"You shoved me first dickhead." The two bickered with little regard for actually staying on top of the water.

"Keep running your mouth like that, I'm going to beat the shit out of you!"

"I don't care. You've told me you're going to beat the shit out of me so many times that I'm completely desensitized to you saying it."

"Maybe I will this time though."

"Do it then pussy."

What proceeded was the saddest, most "grade-school" like scuffle with Sasuke walking backwards because he was, despite his words, legitimately scared Naruto might fly off the handle and attack him and Naruto throwing punches with the bare-minimum amount of power to make it look like it would hurt despite the fact that he was scared if he did actually hurt Sasuke that Sasuke would legitimately beat the shit out of him. This went on for a solid seven minutes, and only served to strand the two further away from the kunai.

* * *

It was later in the day now, judging from the sky. It's lush pinks and blues had begun to give way to a sunset orange. Sakura paid it little mind, more focused on trying to break Kakashi's defense. She'd initially thought him taking a defensive stance would make it easier to at least get a hit off, only to quickly realize she had less than no chance of even touching him if he didn't want her too. It felt like she was punching under-water but he was still on land.

She threw three strikes outward, but Kakashi didn't even bother blocking them. He was so quick on his feet that the attacks had no way of even reaching him and by the time Sakura had closed the distance, she was too tired to think up a strategy of value. Instead, she just kicked at his side, which was blocked. Then, using her free leg, she tried to jump up off the ground to try and kick him yet again. Unfortunately for her, giving all your momentum over to your opponent was a bad thing and Kakashi tossed her out of the circle like she was nothing.

"Yuck!" She groaned, having to rub her tongue free of leaves as she sat up from the awkward landing angle. It was in this lull that she finally got a glimpse of the sky. How many times had she fought Kakashi again?

* * *

"Dude, it's like far away but not at the same time." Naruto rambled, as he and Sasuke lay side by side on the river. It was dark at this point; the sun hadn't quite set but it was only a few minutes away from doing so. They hadn't succeeded in reaching the kunai, but they had succeeded in tiring themselves out so much that they were sat down on the lake with no hope of getting back to shore until Kakashi and Sakura came back.

"If I were less tired, I'd say that's fucking stupid, but now I get what you mean." Sasuke replied, voice dreary. Both had expended their chakra far too much, and were now conserving what they had left into their backs so that they stayed afloat (Well Naruto was. Sasuke had remembered that you just needed to lie on your back normally to stay afloat in the water.)

"What's taking them so long anyway?"

"I don't know. Maybe they forgot about us."

"Don't be an idiot. Kakashi-sensei wouldn't do that, Sakura wouldn't either."

"Are you sure? Why haven't they come back already then?"

Naruto paused for a second.

"…How long until our chakra comes back?"

* * *

"I think it's time for you to take a rest Sakura." Kakashi said, his posture barely even tenured while Sakura was practically slouched to the ground already. Her limbs were jelly, eyes sagged like she'd done an all-nighter, but she refused to stay down.

"No way. 'Gotta get one." She mumbled; voice completely slurred. Kakashi had little patience for it, looming over to Sakura like a lion would a gazelle. His arm clenched as the time to end this drew near. Raising his fist up, Kakashis arm came sniping down like a bullet with intent to punch Sakura hard enough to send her flying out of the circle. She was barely able to stand up, if she was knocked down it'd be the end of her for at least the next day. In his haste to knock the girl out though, Kakashi made one crucial mistake. He'd expected Sakura to be so tired that she couldn't move her arms, which wasn't true, she could barely move her arms. Therefor, Kakashi's punch left a massive opening that Sakura pounced on.

_**WAM!**_

There was no hesitation as her fist connected sharply with his chest.

"Got ya."

She had, technically. The punch had not even been strong enough for Kakashi to feel through the flak jacket. He hadn't even realized she'd hit him until she'd pointed it out to him, but it was still a hit. A hit that connected even though she knew she might get hit back. It actually took the older man off-guard despite its lightness. What really took him off-guard was when Sakura fully collapsed onto the ground.

* * *

"I was like a good 2 to 5 meters in front of him."

"You're such a blatant fucking liar Naruto."

Naruto and Sasuke's bickering continued long after Kakashi had managed to rescue them from the water's foothold. The four were sat around the riverbank, with Kakashi being the only one who felt like his joints weren't on fire and on ice at the same time. This still didn't stop Naruto and Sasuke from taking agonizingly slow swipes at each other. It indisputably late now, with the night sky's afterglow only being offset by the small fire Kakashi had lit in front of them.

"Settle down you two." Kakashi chided, doing little to resolve the petty squabbles that occurred between the pair. It did at the least shut them up for the moment, even if one of them occasionally threw a passive aggressive kick against the other.

"Hey, sensei?" Sakura suddenly asked, having not spoken in a while.

"Hm?"

"I just remembered. Wasn't today supposed to be a mission, not training?"

"It was."

Sakura briefly paused.

"…Then why didn't we do the mission?"

Her question was interesting enough that both Sasuke and Naruto's attention was now directed towards Kakashi as well. He supposed it was only right to tell them early.

"Have you three heard of the chunin exams?"

Sasuke nodded, while Sakura interjected.

"Yeah, we had a speaker come in to the Academy to tell us about it. Her name was Anko, I'm pretty sure."

"Oh yeah!" The remembrance of the name springboarded Naruto to recollection. "Wasn't she the coordinator of the whole thing this year?"

"God help us." Kakashi grumbled, trying and failing to keep his voice low enough so that the students couldn't hear. "Anyway, you're aware of the basic concept, right?"

"It's a series of trials that they use in the consideration for the nomination of chunins, the rank above genin." Sasuke said, words reading like they were ripped straight from a book (they were).

"Right. Well, this year's exams are coming up and I think it would be a good idea for you three to participate."

None of the three ninja had been expecting him to say that. Sakura quickly explained why:

"But we only became genin a few months ago sensei, isn't it a bit quick to jump up to chunin?"

"I'd say it's _very _optimistic to assume any of you will reach chunin on your first try. It's not uncommon to have to retake the exams an upwards of five times until you're given the rank."

"Didn't you do it on your first try?" Sasuke said, shooting a questioning glance at his teacher.

"I did but I also didn't struggle to walk on water for more than fifteen minutes if you want some perspective on your chances." Kakashi's voice was surprisingly calm considering he'd just blatantly insulted all three of his students. "The point is, I'm leaving it on you three to decide if you want to take it but every day we don't have a conclusive answer is another day we have to train as if you're taking it. Better to be prepared than not to be."

The trio of genin nodded in agreement.

"I'd recommend reading up on the exams. Decide if being a shinobi is really what you want to do." Kakashi's tone turned gravely serious all of a sudden. "The genin exam was the first step, the land of waves the second. These exams will lock the door behind you even if you don't reach chunin."

Kakashi turned to them with a sudden burst of grimness behind his eyes. Despite the warmth of their bodies, the three began to feel the cool air running up their spine. A sense of gravity that they had long forgotten lingered in the air.

"Remember, the road of a ninja is one that is constantly traveled but yet it's still uncharted. Funny how that is."

The only sound that could be heard for the next while was the chirping of the night-time frogs.


	18. Naruto and Sakura I

"_Oh." Sakura yawned, eyes sagging as she walked down the stairs. She'd just woke up so even the gloomy light of the early morning seemed muted and dreary. Her steps were precise but slow, the girl knowing if she misstepped, she could end up taking a lethal fall. Her hands gripped against the banister of the stairway in an attempt to keep herself steady while muffled voices bounced around through the walls. While she could technically hear what they were saying, she was too young to really understand it. _

"_Shut the fuck up with your ultimatum bullshit Hayato. You're the one who told me to keep it, and now you're threatening to walk?!" A female voice shrieked. _

"_There it is. There it fucking is. Tbe Yuamochi blame game, tried and true." _

"_Fuck you- " _

"_It's never __**your **__fault, always mine or the literal child's!" _

"_I can't tell the fucking difference anymore." _

_The male voice the woman been debating with let out a loud laugh, obviously faked to make it seem like he was less invested in the argument then he actually was. _

"_Yeah, yeah."_

"_Seriously. Six years' worth of commitment and now you're telling me you're not feeling it, that's how a child thinks."_

"_I didn't know you were such a bitch at the start of those six years though." _

"_**If you were as good on the pull out as you said, you wouldn't have had to stick around!**_"

"_I am good on the pull-out."_

"_There is a living breathing example of you not up in her bedroom right now!" _

_Silence overtook the room with the crackling fire replacing any sign of dialogue. When the two voices did resume, they were lower in tone, significantly so when you realized just how loudly they'd been yelling at each other prior. _

"_Are you going to leave?" The woman asked, sounding more bitter than anything else. _

"_Maybe." _

"_Take the kid with you." _

"_Nope."_

"_What do you mean nope?"_

"_I'm going to live a sage lifestyle." _

"_You're going to get high on frolic and piss around at bars in Kiri is what you mean?"_

"_Maybe." _

"_Oh jesus, this is so fucking unbelievable." The lady's words became suddenly bogged down by the cracking of her voice. "It's such a you thing to do. Just because you've got a headband and an above-average education, you think you're smart. You're not, Hayato, you just fuck things up. You fuck things up so hard, you can't even resist taking everyone else down with you while you're fucking up! Now __**I'm **__a fuck up because I'm stuck carrying around your baggage for the rest of my life!" _

_The embers of the fire crackled more intensely as Sakura stayed hidden behind the wall. She wasn't cognitively at a level that let her understand even a little bit of the conversational context. Her six-year-old brain was simply smart enough to realize that if she walked in on mum and dad fighting, the fight would get worse. It wasn't until she heard her mother's footsteps echoing fainter and fainter that she felt it was okay to come out. _

"_Dad?" She murmured, rubbing her eyes as she waltzed out into the slightly cramped living room. Her father's eyes became filled with panic as he saw her, though he quickly converted that panic into a smile. As time went on, Sakura would grow to hate that smile. _

"_Hey, blossom. What are you doing up so early?" He talked in a whispery tone to avoid startling the obviously tired child too much _

"_I ran out of water." Sakura mumbled. _

_Her father was a lanky man, probably around 6'2 in height. His hair was an oddly vibrant pink that ran down into spiked bangs which covered his forehead (Keeping in Haruno tradition, those bangs needed to be especially long if they were to achieve this). His neck was constantly covered in a pink and purple striped scarf that was long enough to reach his waist should he not wrap it as well as he did. Sakura had scarcely seen him without it. _

"_Have you got your cup?" He asked, to which Sakura nodded her head and retrieved the small clay cup from her pajama pocket. The Haruno household wasn't the most financially stable one in the world, so the cup was tiny in an attempt to keep the utility bill low. Hayato grabbed it before taking Sakura's hand in his as he led her into the kitchen where the sink was. Her mother was sat at a small table, stewing to herself. Yuamochi was an attractive lady, who's fair brown hair split into a set of twin tails. Sakura was six, and children entered formal academy education at seven or eight, so it wasn't like she had anything to compare too but even just from the other families she'd see around the street, she could tell her parents were incredibly young. _

_The pair of adults seemingly refused to make eye contact as Hayato refilled the cup and handed it to Sakura, who earnestly drank a small sip. He led her back to the stairwell, attempting to send her back to bed. _

"_Come on blossom, you need to go back to bed."_

"_I know." She mumbled, still not entirely awake. Despite her drowsiness, however, she was still sharp enough to realize how Hayato was clutching his coat from the hanger next to the front door. _

"_Are you going somewhere?"_

_His expression turned to one of panic when he realized she'd seen his absentminded grabbing. He was quick to break out into a smile though, making sure Sakura wouldn't get suspicious. Slipping the coat over himself, he crouched down to meet her child-like gaze. _

"_I'm just going out to buy some smokes, okay?"_

_Sakura's sleepy brain made her pause, before her face turned stern. "Okay, but come back soon or mum's gonna get worried." _

_Hayato snorted. _

"_Right." He said, giving one final word to Sakura before turning around and walking out the door. The chill from outside immediately took her mind off her father and squarely onto wanting to get under the covers where it was warm. She rushed up the staircase, holding the cup of water in one hand and the rough wood of the banister handle in the other. She made it about halfway up before turning around to quickly see where her father was. His body was no longer in view from the height she was at, his last trace being the cap of his boot scraping through the ice of the frozen stones on the front path. _

_That was the last time Sakura saw her father. _

* * *

"Oy, Sakura. Look at this" Sasukes monotone voice snapped her awake. Her teal eyes blinked a few times before she fully realized where she was. The river where Sasuke and Naruto usually hung out. They'd been assigned to patrol this area for the next few days, as Naruto and Sasuke had discovered someone had been growing frolic (a highly illegal drug) on the riverbanks. She doubted either of them actually cared about a potential Konoha drug ring, but the patch of frolic had been planted where the two usually planted their emergency stock of weeds for that raft game they played.

The mission itself had turned out to be fairly uneventful. Kakashi frequently went MIA to eat out while keeping the three of them stationed at the river. This usually led to antics that were somewhat amusing if not full on funny. Currently, Naruto was in the middle of cussing out three kids who had tossed a candy wrapper in the river while Sasuke watched with a full-blown smirk. From the way he and Sasuke had reacted to them. One of them, a boy, had a blue scarf, and brown hair, which was partially covered by a set of goggles. The other boy among them had thick rimmed glasses and what was pound for pound maybe the lamest bowl cut Sakura had ever seen. The last of them was a girl, who's ginger hair was stuck out almost like two bananas.

"Can it will ya? It's just a stinking wrapper." Konohamaru grumbled, showing little concern for Naruto screaming in his face.

"Oh yeah! What about when this river becomes more junk than water, how'd you like that?!"

"Whatever Naruto, why don't you go paint the Hokage monument or something?' The boy sneered, thinking that it was probably the funniest joke anyone had ever told. Naruto snarled in response, ripping a pad of paper out of his pocket along with a blue pencil.

"One more word out of you and I'll right you up Konohamaru, I swear to god." The Uzumaki boy barked, which earned an unintentional laugh out of the girl behind him. This laugh served as the newest target for Naruto's outrage.

"Oh yeah. Laugh it up, the three of you are going to jail _and hell_."

The boy with the glasses turned to Konohamaru, eyes wide with fear.

"Konohamaru, I can't go to jail. Mum said if I'm not home by three, I'm not allowed to have any dinner."

"Don't worry about him Udon. He can't right us up, their just genin." The ginger girl said, jeering outwardly at him.

"Actually, we can. Kakashi left us in charge so we can right up anyone we want." Sasuke said, having to somewhat yell to circumvent the distance between him and the group. It was clear he didn't actually care about the trio's minor discrepancies and just wanted to fan the flames. The girls face dropped at his explanation in the meanwhile, the realization that Naruto actually had some form of power over them slamming into her like a brick.

"B-but we're kids so you can't send us to jail!"

"Fuck around and find out then." Naruto growled, pulling out a notepad and pen. The click of the latter sent a surprisingly potent jolt of fear down the backs of the three children. Sensing he needed to act fast, Konohamaru frantically ruffled through his pockets and picked up a smoke bomb.

"Run! Run!" He screamed as it hit the ground, its cheapness meaning that it's actual smoke was barely thicker than the literal air that was radiating through the river. He and his friends bolted down the side, legitimate fear of god prominent in their eyes. Naruto waited until they were out of earshot to finally start laughing, walking back over to his friends.

"Good job Naruto. You really put that eleven-year-old in his place." Sasuke snickered, which only made Naruto laugh harder as he plopped himself down on the river bank. If they'd been more on-edge, they'd have noticed that Sakura wasn't laughing. Instead, her gaze was stuck fixated on the river like it had been before Sasuke had attempted to call her to attention. It was like she was in a different reality, eyes boldened with a thousand-yard stare.

_It was today, wasn't it?_

* * *

"Come on Kakashi-sensei, let us off early!" Naruto whined. The sun was setting on what had been a completely uneventful day outside of the altercation with Konohamaru. The copy ninja had returned from his venture out in the town with a folding chair that he'd placed directly near the river. The action was somewhat justified as Kakashi had to stay on watch for the frolic-planter far after the genin were dismissed and to stand up for all that time would be maddening.

"No way. What if the perp shows up in the next five minutes? I'll really need your help to apprehend him." Kakashi's bullshittery was obvious that even Naruto could tell he was having a laugh. This also meant that Naruto realized further argument was a lost cause. He curled his mouth up into a pout and crossed his arms, shuffling under the dirty riverbank. Team Seven had long since realized that with just how long they would have to spend patrolling the river each day that attempting to keep clean would be an effort in futility. It was better to sit down and rest your legs than to ware yourself out trying to save on laundry costs.

Trails on sunlight scattered through the trees, bigger chunks of it raining down through the clearing that aligned with the river itself. The bath of light that was descending from the sky created the illusion that the river was orange in color thanks to its reflective nature. It was as quiet as it always was, occasional chirps from the birds that fluttered around the scene only punctuating this silence. That was, until Kakashi began to move around his chair.

"So, how are you three feeling about the chunin exams?" He asked.

"Oh yeah! Aren't we supposed to be training for those?" Naruto asked, tone switching from positivity to confusion in a split-second.

"Mission quotas are a thing, remember? The rivers also right there if you want to get some water walking practice in." Kakashi said, before turning to face the three genin. "Although, I would think that after the amount of time we put into it last week, the three of you are more or less on an average level."

Naruto nodded, being the one who had put the most of his free time into trying to improve his water walking. His chakra control was still a problem, but he'd managed to get a decent enough handle on his chakra movement to the point where he could easily run on a stable pool of water. The other two didn't really have as many problems with theirs as he did so a run-down on them was unnecessary.

"Anyway, have we come to a unanimous decision on the exams themselves yet?" Kakashi asked.

"I want to do it." Sasuke said, looking up only slightly from the ground. Soon after, silence filled the area to give Kakashi enough cause for concern. Neither Naruto or Sakura seemed willing to speak, the former looking embarrassed while the later was just starring off into space.

"…Considering I need all three of you to agree to the exams before registering, it would be nice if I got more than one answer."

"Oh, Right. I'm still thinking about it." Naruto said, the vagueness of his wording making Kakashi want to slap himself. Sasuke immediately sprung back to life at his friend's uncharacteristic indecisiveness.

"You seem pretty lax about becoming Hokage."

Naruto immediately took the defensive. "Am not! I just don't want to go out there and end up looking like an idiot to all my future subordinates. Besides, it's not like there's some big link between the Hokages and the chunin exam."

"Every Hokage who could, took the chunin exam at their first chance." Sasuke pointed out. Naruto's attention immediately snapped to Kakashi.

"Is that true?"

"Technically. The exam wasn't around during The First and Second's youths and The Fourth was put into a single-teacher apprenticeship as soon as he left the academy so I guess "Every Hokage _who could_" is correct. Still, I wouldn't say skipping the exam the first time around would really hurt your Hokage chances."

Naruto smiled a smug grin back at Sasuke.

"What _would _hurt your Hokage chances is the fact that you're seemingly so scared of being looked down upon that you would miss out on an opportunity you considered yourself ready for."

That grin turned into a grimace.

"Yeah, yeah."

"Sakura, what about you?" Kakashi asked, question causing the girl to jump slightly in her spot. Her facial features initially puffed out in surprise before fading into an apologetic smile.

"Sorry sensei, I wasn't really listening. What was the question?"

"What's your verdict on the chunin exams?"

"I read up on it the other day. The mortality rate really creeps me out."

"It's only around seven percent." Kakashi recalled, oblivious to Sakura's true fears.

"It's still a mortality rate though."

"If that's what you're worried about, I question why you became a ninja in the first place Sakura." The remark was unexpectedly harsh, doubly so when you considered how lazily Kakashi had said it. Still, it seemed to have little effect on Sakura, who essentially waved it off.

"Right." She mumbled, eyes darting back to the ground. After a few seconds, Kakashi realized she wasn't going to give an answer which meant this whole conversation had given him essentially nothing in the way of information except reveal the foregone conclusion that was Sasuke's "yes" verdict. The copy ninja let out a loud sigh, further backing himself into the folding chair.

"We're still a month and a bit away from the deadline, so I suppose the decision can wait a little bit." He said, exposed eye lazily wandering down to the ground until the jolt of revelation brough him back to "teacher mode"

"Schools out. You three are free to go."

Naruto jumped to life with a sudden burst of energy that could only have been stored through several minutes of unwanted stillness. And when the phrase "jumped to life" was used, it meant he literally jumped onto his feet, kicking up leaves in his wake.

"Alright Sasuke! It's time for night patrol!"

Kakashi's eyebrow shot so far up over his head that it could no longer be seen under his headband.

"What's "night patrol?"" He inquired, tone showing that he already thought it would be something incredibly lame or incredibly dangerous.

"It's when we stay out late eating ramen, drinking soda and listening to shitty records from, like, a hundred years ago." Naruto said, as if Kakashi should've somehow known this all already.

"Right. Well I'd say don't stay out too late, but I doubt fatigue is really going to impact the mission much so stay out as long as you want."

"Alright!" The Uzumaki yelled, practically pulling Sasuke up with him as he raced to his feet. Despite his franticness, he still noticed Sakura's expression from the corner of his eye. She was, yet again, completely zoned out. It was honestly bordering on the point of annoyance how she had completely slipped into a trance yet again for reasons unknown to anyone.

"Sakura?" Naruto asked, slowing his wild pace for the minute. Once more, Sakura made the same strange expression switch that happened when she was snapped out of the zone. "You wanna come hang out?"

Sakura simply smiled the same smile she always did when Naruto or Sasuke asked her this, one half-embarrassed and half-remorseful while her eyes shut cutely, leaving any trace of further expression blank.

"Sorry, I can't. My mum would kill me if she knew I was staying out after class."

* * *

"_Snow falls, fire burns but my heat comes from the way you know I yearn- " _

The music from Naruto's record player bounced through the rooftops, threading through the air and stretching its audibility down to the ground. For a regular citizen walking by, the sound of old-fashioned jazz would be _just _loud enough to be noticeable yet not enough for them to be able to accurately gage where it was coming from. Unless of course, they happened to catch Naruto and Sasuke noticeably slurping down their ramen from safety of the Konoha skyline. The two had found the building after they realized that sitting in Naruto's stuffy apartment every night eating, drinking and listening to music was lame. However, if they did the exact same thing but outside it suddenly had ambiance and class.

The building they'd chosen orbited around the outskirts of the more industrialized sects of Konoha. There was little in the way of houses or apartments around it, with its company mainly consisting of business that had closed for the day and one supermarket that closed at varying times every day. Judging by the few times he'd checked the place out, Sasuke would feel confident guessing that the people who planted the frolic near the river most likely worked at there. The building they sat on had been abandoned a while ago, being a seafood-store who had become a victim of frigid leaf/mist trade relations. Its insides may have been worn down from years of neglect, but its rooftop was surprisingly accommodating for the two boys needs. From the beaten down rusty railing that ran around it, Naruto and Sasuke could see the bustling lit up Konoha city streets and how their life faded as the night grew older.

Well, Sasuke could see them at least. Naruto was too busy scoffing down the contents of his brightly decorate ramen bowl to take in the sight. As part of an arrangement with Ichiraku, which was normally dine-in only, he and his friends would be allowed to get takeout on the condition that he washed and brought back the bowl the next time he was in. Naruto had quickly learned that the general store to the side

"You're such a slob." Sasuke chided, delicately stirring his broth around his chopsticks. Naruto didn't respond initially, still slurping down the almost-amber colored liquid of his ramen before setting the bowl down and turning to Sasuke with a small pout.

"That's how you get all the flavors stupid. You just pick at the scallions and then take the smallest possible bite of the pork."

"I'm getting a feel for the flavor profiles of each individual section."

"Yeah, and I get all of them at once."

"No you don't! You mix them all together like some ramen homunculus."

"Whatever dude. At least it doesn't take me half an hour to finish a bowl."

Sasuke shut up at this point because Naruto was completely vindicated in what he was saying. Often times they'd ended up staying out later then intended because Sasuke just refused to eat at the speed of a normal person. Silence resumed as the Uchiha boy stewed, while Naruto merely resumed slurping (this time on a can of soda). This lack of dialogue stayed put until the record player began to start hiccupping.

"I'll get it." Sasuke said, moving over to the machine. Shinobi record players were primitive but powerful machines, with a cranking lever connecting to the "arm" of it. The more you spun the crank, the more time the machine could play, its needle running over the engravings of the record. This system was somewhat flawed, as Sasuke demonstrated by having to re-spin the lever before they were even halfway through the record. In the midst of this tedium, his eyes glided over the slipcase that Naruto had sloppily discarded on the rooftop. Its design was nothing special, vaguely yellow in color with a pair of eyes staring back under big bolded font that read "Heart Attack". Smaller text underneath that read "Kakani Zumitsu"

"I know this guy." The Uchiha boy said, grunting slightly as he finally wound the lever enough to get the music moving again.

"Really?" Naruto said, slightly shifting his body over towards Sasuke.

"Yeah. He's a singer from Kumo, my father had all his records imported over here. The Fourth must've down the same." Sasuke mused, referring to Minato by his title only as to avoid another lecture by Naruto on how "he's not really my dad!"

"Is he any good?"

"His first two records were. Then he got shipped out to the Second Shinobi World War and when he came back, his music just became money-driven dribble with all the lyrics being essentially Kumo propaganda. That's what my father said at least."

From Naruto's expression (or lack thereof), Sasuke could immediately tell something in his ramble had not computed with his brain. The most likely target was probably the aforementioned village because Naruto had some of the lowest history grades in the entire academy.

"What's Kumo Naruto?" Sasuke asked quickly, causing small beads of sweat to start leaking from the Uzumaki's forehead.

"It's a c-capital village."

"Where?"

His level of sweat suddenly went from raindrop to waterfall.

"…The land of fire?"

"You live in the capital village for the land of fire Naruto so I don't think that's it."

"**Yeah I know! Just tell me the answer!**" Naruto's shaky tone went to full-fledged screeching so quickly it almost made Sasuke laugh.

"It's in the land of lightning."

Naruto crossed his arms and puffed outwardly; expression angered. This lasted for about two seconds until a sudden rebound of self-consciousness hit him and his features softened.

"Okay, thanks for telling me."

The voice was essentially whisper-level when compared to his usual tone, but that was to be expected when Naruto expressed gratitude. Sasuke had noticed it early on during their late-night stay-outs. It was strange, when they were around each other, Sasuke was always that much louder and Naruto was always that much quieter than usual. He tapped his chin inquisitively as Naruto continue to awkwardly shuffle around, the Uzumakis awkward posture only being halted when he noticed the lights to the nearby supermarket go dark.

"The lights went out." He idly murmured, prompting Sasuke to shuffle closer to the balcony's edge.

"That's early."

Almost all of the store was visible to the two from where they sat due to the markets low ceiling and the height of their own vantage point. The owner, who Sasuke had recalled manning the counter a few times before, stumbled out of the front door. His frame was lanky, with ratty brown hair and a green coat that was entirely too big for him. Naruto squinted, with the man being a mere blob in his vision due to how far away he was while Sasuke managed to view his actions thanks to the sharingan.

"What's he doing?" Naruto asked, noticing the red tinge in the Uchiha's eyes.

"He just walked into a lamppost. Now he's turning around." Sasuke commentated, watching as the man seemingly attempted to drag himself back from whatever dimension he thought he was in. It wasn't drunk-level stumbling, but it was definitely an amount of incoordination that should not have been possessed by a human being. The last thing Sasuke managed to get a visual on was the large bouquet of flowers that the man was for some reason holding, before said man began to stir once more. "Shit, he's coming this way."

Upon the realization that the man had actually been able to find some direction, Sasuke's sharingan snapped off. The Uchiha youth began to relax his posture, acting as if he hadn't just been spying on the mans dawdling actions. Between Naruto's tracksuit, the big-ass record player behind them and the target-like Uchiha symbol on the back of Sasuke's shirt, the pair was hard to miss even in the mans intoxicated state. Demonstrating exactly this, his beady eyes (that were also noticeably red) lit up as he saw them sitting on the building.

"Hey, what are you kids doing up there?" He said, voice indicating that his mind was not just up in the clouds, but up in a plane of existence that most humans didn't even know the concept of height could reach.

"We're just hanging out dude." Naruto casually said back, having to yell due to the difference in elevation.

"Well, have a good night and stuff. Don't fall off." The shop owner slurred, blinking strangely a few times before setting back out on his way. A few seconds past, as the two genin made sure that he was well out of earshot before the simmering backdrop of laughter boiled to the surface leaving both Naruto and Sasuke in hysterics.

"What a weirdo." Naruto practically cried through his fit of laughter.

* * *

Sakura gently placed her hand on the doorknob. Dread seeped through its brass base, freezing the kunoichi in place for the moment. Ten, fifteen seconds passed as Sakura stood there, frozen with anxiety as her mind became transfixed on what lay behind the entryway. This was not some kind of entrance to hell as her thoughts would make it out to be, instead it was the door of her home.

Realizing she had been standing in place too long, Sakura opened the already unlocked door and stepped foot into the house.

"Mum, I'm home." Sakura called, voice echoing through the cramped walls of the house. There was a light on in the kitchen, so she decided to head that way in lieu of the lack of response she received. In there, she found her mother sitting at one of the rooms mall circular tables. Even all these years later, she was still an attractive woman but also one who's stress was on clear display. Her once luscious brown hair bled into a mix of a dim grey and a washed out blond, while her face sagged slightly with a complete lack of the superficial youth that she used to radiate. The sight of her thin fingers lazily reaching into a bag of chips, absent-mindedly stuffing them in her mouth while flicking through a book's pages, only served to compound this. She turned slightly, noticing the sounds Sakura was making without enough care to realize her daughter was home. When she saw the living proof before her eyes however, it did little to improve her demeanor. In fact, she seemed exacerbated at Sakura's mere presence.

"Hey honey, how was your day?" She said, sounding like she was forcing herself to make conversation. Sakura headed for the cub board, untangling her headband from her hair.

"It was okay. The mission we're on is kind of boring though. We just have to watch- "

"Right."

Sakura stopped talking. She'd realized after she'd entered the academy that Yuamochi saying "right" when you were talking meant you may as well just be having a conversation with the wall because the same amount of actual listening was going on. She decided to save her words and focus on getting some food instead. However, this was also a fool's errand, as Sakura opened up the fridge with meager expectations only to be let down again. It was completely empty outside of a few fundamental ingredients that were essentially inedible without preparation. That is unless you thought eating a stick of butter whole counted as a snack.

She had been hoping for leftovers from something Yuamochi had made for lunch, or, and she knew it was a once in a blue moon event, actual dinner made specifically for her but of course these were pipe-dreams.

"Hey, mum, did you get anything at the market?" Sakura asked, hopes slightly rising. She had specifically asked for a few ingredients that were ridiculously easy to require. Hell, if she had the time or literally any money, she'd have just got them herself. Yuamochi looked up from the tabletop, teal eyes completely blank.

"Yeah, I got your stuff. It's in the cupboard."

Sakura opened the cupboard. Her stuff was not in there.

"Um, what shelf is it on?" Sakura asked tentatively, only managing to find shelves of vegetables and probably out-of-date baking products.

"The little container thingy to the right."

Sakura looked there as well. All that lay in it was a packet of salt.

"There's only salt."

"Yeah, that's what you asked for."

"No I didn't. I asked for black pepper and paprika." She said, attempting to make it sound like she wasn't angry. Yuamochi stared back at her vacantly, mind slowly having to go through the motions of "realizing she'd made a mistake". It was clear how this mistake had happened. Sakura had asked to her to get the pepper and/or paprika, which she had not been listening to at all. Her brain had taken a request for spices as a blanket want for "salt" and here they were.

For a brief moment, Sakura thought her mother was going to apologize. Then she said this:

"Well I got you salt, didn't I?"

Sakura tried to bite her lip as she sensed the sigh coming, but couldn't stop it from leaking out her lips (with a lot of force behind it as well)

"Oh, come on Sakura! Don't get mopey with me!" Yuamochi's expression finally shifted from blankness, and did so with a startling quickness. It was a quickness that was completely unnecessary, as before she'd even finished talking, Sakura had already begun apologizing.

"Yeah, I know, I know. I'm sorry Mum."

Yuamochi shifted back to blankness as quickly as she'd blown up, though not before sneering and spitting on the "arguments" grave.

"Seriously, grow up a little bit."

Sakura had never gritted her teeth harder than she did in that moment. There was a small window of time where the containment of the insults on the edge of her tongue became _nearly _too much for the girl to handle, but she managed to keep them in for the moment. She had dinner to make after-all, even if that dinner was inevitably going to be some tasteless cabbage-based stew. She began ruffling through the unorganized shelves, in search of a pot big enough to bring to a boil. The one she ended up finding was big, big enough to make a few days' worth of serves and save her the effort of going through this whole song and dance again until she could get some proper spices. However, it was also dirty, which meant she had to wash it out which wasted further water.

Her mother had always been antsy about the water bill, so Sakura was locked in a perpetual state of dread when the tape was running. In this instance though, Yuamochi reserved her complaints with her focus returning to the pages of whatever **awfully-written schlock her dumb-ass decided to- **

Sakura placed the lid over the water as it ran towards a boil. Small flickers of flame danced up from underneath the stovetop. It would be a while before she'd have to start cutting things up, so she could hang out a little bit until then. Soon though, she realized that just standing around in silence while her mother was right in front of her made her feel…weird. It was like she was self-conscious about it despite the fact that there was no one else in the room to judge her for it. It pushed her to make conversation.

"Hey, mum?"

"Hm."

"This'll be quick." She said, making sure Yuamochi didn't slip back into "right" mode. "Some of my friends are going out tonight but their doing it, like, every night for however long we're watching the lake and it just kind of sucks that I have to turn them down every time they invite me- "

"I'm going to stop you right there. You're not going out with either of those boys on your team, the fox brat or the Uchiha psycho."

Sakura was taken aback by her mother's brazen insults, choking on her own words before she could even hope to muster a reply. The woman didn't seem at all like she wanted to have this conversation, and was intent to nip it in the bud before the tension in the room could spike any more suddenly. It almost made her want to just apologize and walk away, but the thought of Sasuke and Naruto having fun on the town and making jokes that the two of them would echo and then refuse to explain when asked managed to keep a little bit of fire lit under her.

"T-that fox thing's just a stupid rumor! Either way, it's not fair! I'm a teen, I should be allowed to go out when I want!"

Yuamochi became visibly agitated at the first sign of push back, eyes slanting in anger as she looked over at Sakura.

"Going out at night with two little demons like them means you'll be an alcoholic before you even hit the drinking age. I'm not going to be raising a _**fucking problem child**_, okay? It's hard enough as is, I don't want to see how I like parenting when you start becoming a junkie!"

The older woman's voice rang out across the room, hitting Sakura significantly harder than any jutsu could. The kunoichi froze completely under her mothers debilitating wave of anger, completely losing any cognitive train of thought in favor of standing silently and hoping that her parent lost interest in the argument. It didn't help that Yuamochi's gaze was absolutely _wilting _and she refused to let it up, as if she was daring Sakura to say something in defiance. No such words came out though, leading to an uncomfortable and tense silence in the air. Then Yuamochi started to move once more, clenching her first under the table.

"Sakura, go to your room. I don't want to deal with you right now." She said, anger surprisingly lacking in her voice.

"But- "

"No _buts._ I'll call you when the waters done boiling, **go to your room**." Okay, maybe it wasn't _that _lacking.

Sakura trudged past her mother, trying (and failing) to hide the frustration-bred grimace that was clinging onto her face. She was already ready to leap up the stairs when she heard one last shot of vindictiveness shot through her back.

"By the way, your laundry piles getting really high. Clean it by next afternoon please."

Sakura nodded before disappearing up the stairwell. The please was really unnecessary, as Sakura knew the rules. She either did it or didn't and then got bitched out to hell and back. Her aggravation and fury began to simmer much like the pot of water currently on the stove, having to passively resist the urge to smash the photographs that lined one of the shelves just outside her bedroom. When she was young, the photos would be changed every week, ranging through a cycle of different artistic shots, along with a family photo in the middle. That week would turn into week_s_ and those weeks into months. A few months after her father moved out, her mother stopped bothering to change them at all, marking the ones that were already as permeant. That meant that whenever Sakura walked to her bedroom, she had to stare at her father smiling that smug fucking smirk.

_**BANG!**_

She nearly threw her bedroom door off its hinges before slamming it shut and _throwing_ herself down onto the mattress. Her room was cramped and stuffy. If she were to lay headfirst from one side, her feet could almost touch the other with the only source of natural light being a decent sized-window that rested high above her bed. The solace of her room did nothing to help her mood, if anything, it made it worse.

Sakura lay on the plush covers for a few seconds, just staring up at the window. The sun had long since started to set and it was just about getting dark now, meaning that the usual rays of light that she had come to take comfort in were nowhere to be seen. It was this tiny, simple little grievance that served as the straw fluttering towards the camel's back. Tears began to run down Sakura's face, the girl shivering and sobbing under their non-existent weight. She tried to wipe her face clean of them, but it was as futile as cutting off a hydras head. More tears began to flow, Sakura learning to just accept them as her hand was getting tired of trying to scrub herself clean.

She hated living here.

_**Well, strap yourself in and make arrangements babe, because you've got a WHILE before you're allowed to move out. **_

Sometimes she could swear Inner-Sakura sounded more like her mum then her.

* * *

"_Two o'clock, two o'clock, two-two-two o'clock_-" Naruto jokingly sung as he and Sasuke wandered through the streets at the aforementioned time. They'd dropped the record player back off at the Uzumaki's apartment but had decided they wanted to do a loop around Konoha before they went to bed. That loop quickly turned to two, which turned to three, which turned to _four _…you get the picture. To be fair, it was fascinating watching Konoha night-life die out as the night grew in age. They got a taste of it from the building top, but actually wandering around town and _seeing _the drunks and the clubbers gradually make their way back home as the street lights began to dim was incredibly interesting.

"When's your record dropping?" Sasuke asked with a smile, sipping from his soda. Ironically, in bringing attention to Naruto's singing, he also ended it with the blonde boy bursting into laughter at the Ucuhia's joke.

"I dunno. I think it'd be pretty good though; you can do all my backing tracks."

"Deal. What's it going to be called?" Sasuke asked, solemn tone fading by the minute.

"…Naruto, the coolest guy in the world, volume one."

Sasuke fucking lost it at this remark. If you were to play Naruto a recording of this laugh, he would probably have guessed it belonged to literally everyone else he knew before saying Sasuke. Just from pitch-level alone, the Uchiha boys voice was usually considerably lower than what his laugh indicated. It took a good ten seconds for him to settle down, but when he did, it was almost like his emotional pendulum had swung too far one way and was now trying to even itself out. He looked his eyes on Naruto's track jacket, physically distancing himself from his friend

"Naruto, your jacket's filthy."

"Huh?" Naruto looked down to see what he was talking about, only to look back up at Sasuke with a glare. "No! These are just food stains."

"Exactly, your jacket's filthy."

"Whatever."

"Do your laundry."

"No way. I realized, laundry is a total scam, it's just gonna get dirty again anyway."

"So, if someone goes and pisses on your jacket, your going to keep wearing it because it'll just get dirty again after you wash it?"

"No! I just meant that- "They seemed on track to get into another one of their ridiculous bickering matches, the consistent winner varying and the loser being time, but something had caught Naruto's eye. Then it caught Sasuke's as well. On the nearby sidewalk sat a large framed picture of Minato Namikaze, with several dozen bouquets set around it. Inscribed onto the frame in flashy, golden letters were the words:

"_**Lord Forth, gone but not forgotten. LONG LIVE YELLOW FLASH!**_"

"Naruto." Sasuke said, voice low.

"No! Shut up. Why the fuck is this here?! Seriously, what the _**fuck**_?!" Naruto yelled, loud enough that Sasuke was scared they might be on the receiving end of some noise complaints. "Why do it all, but also, why do it _today_?! He did nothing special today, except be a complete fucking loser but he did that every day, so it's still not special!"

"Naruto."

"Why is it specifically him anyway?! Where's old man third? He's actually doing the work for them all right now so it'd be nice to see him get a bit of respect!" He growled. "Or Lord First! He's the most popular ever right?! Why isn't there any lame-ass picture frames on the street for him?"

Sasuke would've pointed out that there was a statue of Hashirama not too far away from here but he suspected Naruto might actually punch him in the face. Instead, he settled for one last repetition, this one with more force behind it.

"**Naruto**."

This got the other boy's attention, albeit only slightly.

"Let's call it a night, okay?"

There was a long pause. For a second Sasuke thought Naruto was going to fully fly off the handle, but he was able to suck it up for the moment.

"Okay."

Sasuke and Naruto would go on to walk away from the tribute and return to their respective homes, but even as the distance between them and the picture frame increased, Sasuke couldn't help but notice Naruto continuing to look back.

* * *

It was early the next morning that Kakashi arrived on near the river in a rough mood. Seriously rough. Not since the land of waves had the trio seen such legitimate anger being emitted by the copy ninja.

"What's up with you?" Sasuke asked, rather rudely considering that he was addressing his teacher. Kakashi took no mind of it though, as if it was like he had been _waiting _to be asked that question

"Well, Sasuke, I was on my way here early this morning when I saw something unnerving. Now, last night, in celebration of the day Lord Fourth rolled out his exceptional "chakra biotic" healthcare innovation plan, a memorial of sorts was put up in the street. Nothing fancy or anything like that, just a picture frame and some flowers. Now, I was very happy about this because I am a _big fan _of the Fourth Hokage, but when I passed that same memorial today, _**I found the glass on the picture frame smashed and crude graffiti drawn all over his face!**_"

Sasuke shot a side-eye to Naruto, who may as well have decided to cartoonishly whistle from how obvious he was being. Luckily, Kakashi was so inexplicably mad that he didn't notice the winks Naruto was giving the other boy.

"Wow, that's awful." Sakura said, also smart enough to notice the link that essentially exposed the perpetrator.

"Yes, yes, it is." Kakashi said, voice somehow calm yet at the same time completely _seething. _He stayed quiet for a few seconds, before, in the same mixed tone, said very simply: "I'm going to get lunch. Naruto, wash your jacket"

It was ten in the morning, so both of those things were probably going to be difficult. In the meanwhile, Team 7 waited for Kakashi to move solidly out of earshot (and then waited for around five minutes after that, to make sure he was _really_out of earshot), before they spoke.

"Naruto, what the fuck?" Sasuke said, cutting to the chase.

"What?! How do you know it was me?"

"Because we went past that goddamn memorial last night and you went apeshit. It doesn't take a genius to realize you did a circle back after I went home." The Uchiha added, this revelation getting a groan from Sakura.

"Oh, come on Naruto."

"God, is this the special gang-up on Naruto session? Give me a break." He groaned.

"Naruto, you defaced a depiction of the Hokage. You could get in serious trouble." Sakura said, voice clearly concerned for her friend. Unfortunately, he didn't share that concern.

"Just don't grass on me and I'll be fine." He spat back, absent-mindedly leaning back against the ground while using his hands as a pillow. Sakura and Sasuke both shot a look to each other that basically said to drop the conversation like a rock. Naruto was right in that they were the only ones aside from Hiruzen who could possibly make the connection, and even if Hiruzen did, there was literally less than zero chance Naruto faced any real punishment for it. That didn't stop him from deciding he needed to lay the boots into Minato's reputation one more time.

"And who cares anyway? He's a loser deadbeat, it was a waste of a frame."

Sasuke wanted no part of that tangent, and chose to stay silent. Sakura in the meanwhile, began to silently fume. It was strange, she'd never done that before when interacting with Naruto despite him being the designated academy "annoying kid". She'd always found him at worst, harmlessly goofy in his mischief. Now, however, seeing him laying back talking about his "deadbeat" father without a care in the world, that made her mad. Minato Namikaze was not a deadbeat, Minato Namikaze saved the village from surefire destruction. Naruto had no idea what a _real deadbeat _looked like.

_**What a brat. **_


	19. Naruto and Sakura II

_Voices echoed through the tides, causing ripples of chartreuse yellow to shine down onto the boy's face. _

"_Naruto…that's a nice name." _

_He could hear the whispers of a woman's voice but they felt so far away he wondered how they were even audible. Naruto began to snap up from his place on the floor, rubbing his head slightly. He didn't know where he was, but it was incredibly dark. The only source of light seemed to be he himself, and even then, it was only bright enough to make his skin seem monochromatic at best. However, the coloration wasn't the strangest thing about this room. That would be the large river that ran along the above him, perfectly illuminated. _

_Naruto squinted looking at it, trying to decipher the rippling flashes of long stored away memories that crawled into its tides. They went by so fast, only sending him occasional hints. Words, colors, yellow, orange, red. Naruto didn't know what they meant, so he stopped caring. Instead, he lay back, tilting his head to the side when he saw it. The one other thing in the room that was illuminated was a towering metal gate. Behind that gate lay a pair of eyes, bright red and piercing in their villainy. The way they were shaped would indicate joy if their scarlet color had not been so prominent. _

_A laugh began to ring out through the desolate landscape, demonic and harsh in its jagged sounds. Naruto just rolled back onto his back, staring back at the surreal river that ran over the ceiling. His eyes curled up into a lazy incline, mouth pouting as the symphony of the creatures laugh echoed through the nothingness._

_**Yep, I'm dreaming.**_

* * *

"Oh, you're dead." Sasuke commented, as he watched the two boats become lodged in the water. Kakashi still wasn't back from his lunch retreat, so the two had taken the chance to play a game of rafts. The designs were identical to the ones they had previously used, with Sasukes being a lopsided abomination that included a rock as an offensive weapon while Naruto had a small, light watercraft that could easily be destroyed by said rock. The only difference was that Naruto had stuck leaves all over the center of his. He'd said their purpose was to "block the rock" which had made Sasuke snort in laughter, because Naruto had stuck literally four of them on. It certainly wasn't going to be enough, especially with how thin they were.

Sasuke was basically smirking as he watched his boat collide with Naruto's, tipping itself over and sending the rock hurtling down at the Uzumaki's light wood frame. However, instead of sinking the ship like he intended, the rock simply sunk into the leaves. Naruto's boat was completely unscathed.

"What?" Sasuke exclaimed.

Naruto grinned, realizing his plan had worked to perfection. With the rock strategy self-destructing in on itself, his smaller boat was able to break free of Sasuke's harpooning and sped to the finish line. As the two boats surfaced, the ploy became revealed. Naruto had built a small cage underneath the leaf trap (which explains why, when he showed Sasuke the design, he was clutching the underside as a concealing method). When Sasuke's boulder trap (which he'd used in almost every rafts game they'd played since the one on Family Unity Day) was sprung, Naruto's cage caught it.

The Uzumaki boy turned to his friend with the absolute dictionary definition of "shit-eating grin" plastered on his face.

"Ha! Totally sucked in! dattebayo!" Naruto yelled, gleeful in his victory. The fact that he'd actually managed to outsmart him pissed Sasuke off enough, the interjection of his little catchphrase did no favors.

"Bullshit." He grunted, which sent Naruto's levels of smugness soaring to a level beyond what was once thought possible.

"It's not bullshit just cause you're losing." He hummed, words _dripping _with fakeness. Sasuke's eyes briefly became rigid in anger, contemplating whether he should smack his friend over the head but he managed to rule against it for the moment. Instead, he just crossed his arms and looked up at the sky. Kakashi had been gone for a while, leaving in the morning and it being the mid-afternoon now. It was par for the course at this point and Sasuke, while critical of him for not acting like an adult, couldn't blame the man that much. He had to cover the dreary night shift, so it was understandable that he might want to try and get something done in the daytime (even if "getting something done" in his case was just gorging himself on café food).

"Hey, Sakura! You wanna play?" Naruto asked the girl, who was stationed to the left of them.

"No thanks. I don't think I'd be that good at it." She said, tone at first sweet before becoming haughtier as her face twisted into a slight smirk. "I could still probably do better than Sasuke though."

Sasuke immediately started to smile at the playfulness of the insult, while Naruto burst out into laughter.

"Oh! She's got you!" He cried, punching Sasuke in the shoulder playfully. The Uchiha took no notice of the gesture, setting a goading look back at Sakura.

"Big talk. You better be able to back that up."

Her cocky composure fell slightly as Sasuke returned it in full, confident smirk wobbling into a unsure grin.

"Well, maybe- "

"Come on Sakura! If you're gonna talk shit, you _have _to play." Naruto prodded at her, dramatically thrusting out a finger.

"You three!" Kakashi suddenly appeared, emerging from the trees suddenly enough that Naruto physically jumped back in fright. Even Sasuke, who was more of less desensitized to minor shock, had his eyes shoot open wide in surprise at the copy ninjas apparent apparition.

"God damn, Kakashi-sensei! You scared the fuck outta' me." Naruto groaned, rubbing a hand through his hair.

"I don't care. I just wanted to stop by to tell you that I have received the forums that show declaration of intent for the chunin exams. You should probably sign them now, just to make the process fast."

Sasuke immediately raised an eyebrow upward, while Sakura looked at Kakashi confused.

"But sensei, me and Naruto don't even know if we want to do them."

"Yes, but this is just a statement of intent and isn't binding. It just helps the organizers properly figure out an estimation of team spaces and prepare accordingly."

This statement sent both Sasuke and Sakura from tepidly confused to straight-up suspicious. It simply wouldn't make sense for the organizers of the exams to prepare around a number of participants that could change at any time, especially with how massive the chunin exams were as an event. It wasn't just some rural sports event that could switch locations on the fly, they were a big deal to even the elemental nations that weren't participating (Kiri and Kumo had long since split from the event due to tensions with the leaf, while Iwa had their own system in place for evaluating ranks, so it the exams weren't even applicable).

"Naruto, how about you sign first?" Kakashi said, handing a pen and paper to the only person out of the group that was dim enough to not become distrustful of what he was saying. Sasuke couldn't help but feel that was intentional.

"Sure thing." The Uzumaki popped the pen's cap of with his teeth, eyes scrolling the page until he found the blank space where he needed to sign his name. He did so quickly, handing the paper back up to Kakashi who vacantly stared at it for a few seconds before becoming _enraged_.

"_You did it, didn't you?!_" The man's demeanor became positively venomous at the sight of the writing, voice cranking up to a volume that none of the genin had seen him use outside of high-stress situations.

"Huh?! Did what?!" Naruto yelled back, taken off-guard by Kakashi's sudden spike in aggression.

"This matches the handwriting of the spray paint that defaced the fourths memorial."

_Shit._ Naruto inwardly thought, a notion that was echoed by both of his teammates. He gritted his teeth, attempting to come up with some sort of response but only producing blanks. Luckily, Sasuke was significantly quicker on the rebound (although maybe this was because he wasn't the one under any real scrutiny)

"Seems like a stretch to me, Kakashi."

"It absolutely isn't. He's got the same noticeable flick on the edge of his "Zs" and the same uneven middle of his "ms"'

"Oh, come on Kakashi-sensei, that's bullshit! Just because me and the guy who did it have similar handwriting-"

"Don't lie to me Naruto, I know it was you! Just look!" Kakashi reached a hand out at the boy, sharply enough in its motion that Naruto legitimately thought he was going to be on the receiving end of a beatdown. He flinched accordingly, only to calm down as Kakashi simply pulled the jacket off his body. Unfortunately, his panic would only skyrocket as he noticed what the older man's actions had revealed.

"Paint stains, the same exact shade of yellow as graffiti." He showed, running a finger along Naruto's sleeve. The stains were clear as day, and completely irrefutable proof of Naruto's guiltiness (unless you wanted to try and argue that a man with an ocular dojutsu misjudged the color of the graffiti), but Sasuke still tried to throw up one last line of defense anyway.

"Those are so faint; how can you even tell if the shade's similar?"

"Sasuke, your defenses are both uncharacteristically weak and frequent. Is it possible that _you assisted in the act?" _

This was clearly bait, but as soon as it was deployed, the result of the discussion became a foregone conclusion.

"He didn't do anything! It was all me sensei, honest!" Naruto yelled, tone quickly subsiding to a grumble as he realized he'd just given up any defense he had. Normally, admitting to a mistake usually led to your accuser calming down somewhat, but this did not happen here. Instead, Kakashi just seemed to get madder, being at a temporary loss for words before burning up into a blazing inferno of rage like _none _the genin had ever seen before.

"Are you stupid?! Do you know how much trouble you could get in if you got found out, **which is clearly quite easy to do?"**

"I painted over the Hokage rock and, like, nothing happened then! Why's a stupid picture frame any different?!"

"You were an unranked minor at the time Naruto, there was little responsibility entrusted onto you. You're a genin now, which means your mistakes come with harsher punishments!"

Naruto frowned, crossing his arms as the unfortunate reality of his actions began to bear down on him.

"That's not even to mention the fact that drawing a mustache on Lord Seconds face is a lot better than calling The Fourth "fox bait.""

Sasuke and Sakura both winced at the words, realizing that Naruto may have gone a teeny tiny bit further than he should've. The boy himself continued to sit with crossed arms, attempting to make it seem like he didn't care about what Kakashi was saying. To be fair, he was far more concerned about Kakashi being mad at him than he was about the potential consequences of his actions, so to say he was only "attempting" to make it seem like he wasn't bothered was poor phrasing.

"Are you gonna grass me in to Lord Third?" Naruto asked, voice low.

"No."

The other two genin breathed a sigh of relief that the possibility of their friend serving jail time had been nipped in the bud. They hadn't _really _thought that Kakashi would've brought it up to the Third, but due to how inexplicably furious he had been at the action, they couldn't help but feel like it was an option.

"As punishment, all three of you will be working the night shift with me. At least until ten o'clock."

The sigh of relief was quickly sucked back in as Kakashi brought the hammer down upon not just Naruto, _but all of them_.

"What?! Kakashi-sensei, that's not fair! They didn't do anything!" Naruto yelled, standing up in a sudden spike of energy.

"You're right, they didn't, but this is the only way you'll learn. See, you're perfectly fine with staying up late by yourself, you could even get some late-night practice in, but now you'll be forced to face the fact that your actions can, _and will_, affect others, which you care significantly more about. Are we clear?"

"But- "He attempted to protest, waving his hands around in a futile effort to drum up a decent response.

"No buts. If you really think you have a chance of becoming Hokage, you'll take the punishment and the scrutiny that comes with it."

Naruto stayed silent for a few seconds, before his response came in the form of a simple head nod. His eyes became devoid of the liveliness that usually bounced through them, bright blues becoming muddied by shadows as he tipped his head down in shame. Upon seeing how legitimately bad his friend obviously felt, even the slightest resentment Sasuke had towards Naruto fizzled away. He was going to practice his taijutsu after the day ended anyway, so it was probably better that he had actual people to spar with instead of just running speed drills.

Sakura, on the other hand, had started to turn deathly pail. No one else really noticed it, as their focus was completely on Naruto and her throat was too hitched up to mutter anything. The problem was simple, she'd forgot to do the laundry. It sounded so benign when it was put that way, to the point that if she were to vocalize it, she would most likely be laughed off yet it was enough to drain the words from her lips. Her mother had asked her to do the laundry by this afternoon, meaning the older woman's germaphobia had reached critical mass. If Sakura didn't do the laundry at five o' clock sharp, she'd be forced to meet a side of her mother that only came out every few months. Yuamochi was usually irritating and demanding but when the intangible yet cold grasp of misplaced dread began to grab at her throat, she became **scary**.

Sakura barely spoke for the rest of the day.

* * *

The hum of the night was incredibly prominent as the genin walked through the stretch of forestland that orbited around the river. It was a little bit before ten o'clock now, Kakashi having sent them off slightly early when it became clear the frolic planter was once again a no-show. As harsh as he could be, even Kakashi realized that keeping the trio behind for five minutes more was completely pointless (this was also around the time he truly comprehended how absolutely mind-numbing Naruto and Sasuke's arguments could get if you were exposed to them for long enough).

The positivity that each genin had could become visually distilled from just a look at how they were walking. Naruto strode forward with his arms tucked around the back of his head, simply happy to take into the shimmering moonlight that glistened through the harsh pines of the forest. Sasuke lingered behind the group, hands locked in his pockets while his mind began to divert it's focus to events far displaced from where the trio were now while Sakura was practically stumbling over herself. Her bizarrely brisk pace occasionally overtook Naruto, while her fingers clenched over each other and her eyes became weighted towards the leaf-stricken ground beneath her. The conversation between them was strangely stalled, lull only breaking when Sasuke happened to catch Naruto being illuminated by the moonlight.

"You really need to do your laundry."

Sakura turned to him with an expression that spoke on not just her emotions, but also her racing heartbeat. Sasuke took notice of this, his own expression splitting between embarrassed and confused.

"Not you. I'm talking about him."

"Oh, what?" Naruto exclaimed, arms immediately breaking from their relaxed position.

"You look like a dumpster baby in that jacket, there's dirt stains all over it."

"Yeah, because we were sparring!"

"Just because you can explain why it's dirty doesn't mean you don't have to clean it." Sasuke pointed out, slightly aggravated that this was a thing he had to explain.

"Whatever. I'll clean it when I feel like it."

"Well, get in the mood soon cause you stink."

"What, like Kiba-bad?"

"Oh god no Naruto, no one aside from Kiba is Kiba-bad. I sat half-way across the fucking room from him and I could still smell essence of wet dog radiating through the halls every morning."

Naruto loudly laughed at this, Sasuke himself even having to hold back from giggling. He soon managed to quash any humor in his voice however, resuming his ire towards the Uzumaki boy.

"Seriously though, I'm begging you to clean that jacket."

"I already said, I'll do it when I feel like it. You're not my dad, you can't tell me what to do."

This response was decently bland in its delivery, with Naruto's words not even being dispatched in their usual loud tone. For the blond-haired boy, it was noticeably subdued yet this harmless phrasing was all it took to snap Sakura out from her practically mute state. Her teal eyes flashed red for a brief second as she shot a withering glare at her friend, one that he had not been at all prepared for.

"If your dad was still here, he'd tell you to clean the jacket. Do your fucking laundry Naruto."

The actual volume of Sakura's insult was menial at best but in her tone was were the venom lay. Her speech's nastiness had been so obviously intentional that instead of birthing playful banter, Naruto just gave her a look that sat somewhere between perplexity and apologia before turning back around to face the front. The group exchanged nothing more that platitudinous farewells for the rest of the night.

* * *

_**Don't make a fucking sound. Creep upstairs, get your forty winks done, wake up early and creep out of the house. **_

This would at least delay the verbal beat-down she was about to get for the short-term, but Sakura was unsure that simply avoiding her mother would help the situation. In fact, if you tried to follow the woman's thought process, the germs on the laundry would only have time to fester and multiply which would make her more pissed off by the time she got ahold of Sakura. That being said, Sakura didn't really care about the long game right now. All she cared about was making sure she didn't have to stay up late handwashing a bundle of clothes like a street-rat from the slums.

Stowing her ragged breath in an attempt to keep quiet, Sakura gently twisted the door knob open. She entered the house on the tallest of tiptoes, eyes scanning over the floorboards with laser-like precision to make sure she didn't knock over any of the clutter that littered the floor (a feat easier said than done when you realized how dark the Haruno household was when there was no lights on). Normally, she could make it from the entrance of the house to her room in around thirty seconds, but in this instance, she was only halfway near the staircase in that time. Her mothers' room was just to the side, so even the slightest sound could serve as an impromptu statement of arrival.

_**Remember what Kakashi said about stealth. Keep on the balls of your feet if you're tip-toes start to slip. **_

Sakura did just this, shuffling around bits of stray paper that lay on the floor. The scraps positioning was like a siren's calls, imploring her to pick them up and tidy the floor but Sakura held strong. She made it through the front stretch of the house making as much noise as an insignificant bug attempting to do the same thing. In around a minute, she had made it to the bottom of the staircase. If she'd been less focused, Sakura would've taken this as an opportunity to breath a sigh of relief but she knew that wasn't an option at the moment. She took a short step onto the first stair, only to immediately panic when she felt her foot hit something very different in texture to the wood that made up the stairs.

_**Sloppy**_.

She tried to pull away but it was too late, the sole of her sandal sinking into the soft cotton of its landing pad. A few days ago, Sakura had noticed she'd misplaced her stuffed rabbit Kanna but had wrote off a scavenger hunt as she was busy with the mission. She was regretting that decision now that Kanna was sat on the first step, lifeless button eyes staring back at Sakura with an almost-mocking quality to them. The kunoichi felt her foot sharply press down on Kanna's stomach, which was a problem because no matter how fast Sakura withdrew the step, she had already lost.

_**SQUEAK!**_

The sound radiated loud and clear from the bunny's chest, bouncing around the room at a volume that was only amplified due to the natural quiet. Sakura's teeth came crashing down against her lip, hoping in deluded desperation that luck would be on her side and her mother wouldn't hear. Unfortunately, these hopes were completely dashed as the sound of rough footsteps began to crack through the floorboards. From the dark abyss of the house, Yuamochi emerged, silent but so obviously furious that her anger was almost tangible. Her washed-out hair dangled down her face in messy curls which only served to intensify this.

"You little fucking bitch." She growled, practically charging over toward Sakura with clear disdain in her eyes. "Did you forget something?!"

Sakura immediately launched into apologetics, holding her hands up as her mother got closer.

"I was going to do the laundry when I came home but my teacher held us back because some idiot decided to- "

"_Bull fucking shit! _You went out with those two boys, didn't you?!"

"No! I didn't, I swear!" Sakura pleaded upon deaf ears. Admittedly, the timing of her asking to stay out with her friends, being told no and then staying out was kind of suspicious. It also didn't help that the years' worth of evidence that Sakura was a self-conscious child who wouldn't even think of stepping out of line without asking thrice had approximately zero value in the eyes of her mother.

"Ballsy to try and deny it when you're caught red-handed! You just didn't want to do your laundry, lazy brat!" Yuamochi snarled, a wilting glare of death flickering from her eyes. "Seriously! The congesting germs on your pile could fucking kill me if I got too close to them. I'm getting old Sakura, take some goddamn responsibility because I'm getting real tired of having to babysit you into your teens!"

For the second time that night, a phrase triggered something in Sakura's brain that made her usual well-spoken nature melt. Once again, her mouth moved full-speed ahead without even the slightest consultation with her brain.

"You're not old, you just feel like you are because you were dumb enough to get pregnant at nineteen."

Sakura's words hung in the air for a nauseatingly long amount of time. The statement itself wasn't much, being only the tip of the iceberg of insults Sakura had compiled about her mother but it was still more push back that Yuamochi had ever experienced from her daughter with Sakura's expression having transformed from the usual frightened one to an illustration of complete spite. This was until she noticed Yuamochi's hand shot upwards, in which she began to instinctively brace. Time slowed to a crawl as Sakura became completely convinced that she was about to eat a sharp slap to the face.

But then there was nothing. Yuamochi was more than smart enough to realize that even the smallest slap would leave her embroiled in an investigation should Sakura decide to squeal on her, so it came as little surprise to Sakura when she lowered her hand down to her hip. Her finger's clenched so hard into each other that the joints became punctuated with a pale wight markings. The intent was clear in this action, making her mother in that moment seem that little bit scarier to Sakura. It was one thing to have a mindless brute for a parent, who would put their hands on you with little-to-no hesitation but it was another entirely to have one who was smart enough to pull back.

"**Do you have any idea how much I had to give up to raise your ungrateful little ass**?"

The delivery of the words was barely coherent considering just how hard Yuamochi's teeth were being clenched, but they hung in the air all the same. The sound of crickets chirping through the dead of night became the primary background noise as both daughter and mother fell silent. Sakura distinctly remembered how faded the old photographs that adorned the upstairs cabinets were.

"Do your laundry right now Sakura." She said, tone somehow at the same time blank but filled with malice.

"But mum, it's late- "

Yuamochi's needed not even speak to silence her daughter, simply shooting the young girl a glare of shriveling malevolence that sucked the air from Sakura's lungs. Sakura mumbled something of an apology before making her way over to the laundry. Her mother didn't move for a while, even after Sakura had passed her. It was clear she was now completely locked away inside her own head which didn't surprise Sakura. Any squabbles she had with her mother were no more than one-sided beat downs that Yuamochi had been waiting years to participate in. Every "this is what I should've said" that her mother had come up with about her father in the years after his departure was unloaded onto a teenager who had little knowledge of anything to do with him. It made sense that her mother would freeze up to try and revel in an emotional catharsis that she'd been deprived of ever since Hayato had left.

_**Wow, didn't realize you were a psychologist now. Must've missed the part where you received anything past basic education. **_

Inner-Sakura's voice boomed through her head, gutting any self-respect that Sakura was attempting to deride from the situation. She tried to block it out as she entered into the cramped laundry room, immediately cringing upon the smell of old detergent burning through her nose. She gripped onto the string that connected to the lightbulb, pulling it down only to remember that the bulb had broken a few months ago. This was great, the next hour of her life would be dedicated to hand washing her clothes _in the dark_ _where she couldn't fucking see the things she needed to clean._ One singular thought had been circling around the back-reaches of her mind for a little bit but with this incident, it became lodged in the front of Sakura's brain. It was one her and her inner-self could agree on.

_**This is all Naruto's fault**_.

* * *

Naruto's hands scuffled through the overcrowded shelves of the market, plastic crinkling as he did so. The packets of crisps had been packed together so tightly that the condensation of their neon-color schemes was starting to give Naruto a headache. He pulled a pack of the shelf with little regard for the flavoring. He just wanted an excuse to rip his sights away from the disgusting amalgamation of color that was the snack-food shelf.

He slung the crisp packet under his shoulder, its edges creasing against a soda can that he had priorly put in the same position. In all honesty, Naruto didn't really want to be here right now. The only reason he was, was because every other shop near him was shut right now and he wasn't going to make a trek halfway across the villiage for some chips and some soda. The issues he had with this shop stemmed entirely from the workers. At first, he'd thought they were distant or just plain rude, which was to be expected, after all Konoha didn't have the highest appreciation for retail jobs such as the ones they worked. However, after the incident with the scroll where he'd learned about his own nature as the nine-tails jinchuriki, Naruto had realized just why the staff here seemed so put off every time he tried to buy something.

"Just these thanks." He mumbled, placing the items on the counter. The employee said nothing in return, grabbing the items and reading the prices off their back. His beady eyes blinked and swirled as he quickly did the calculations, one hand holding up the items while the other scratched up and down the patches of fuzz that cluttered his chin.

"It's 300 ryo." He said, not even attempting to hide the fact that he did not want to be having this conversation at all. Naruto fished through his wallet, finding the appropriate amount of money and placing it on the counter. The employee quickly snatched it up, obviously not wanting to make skin-to-skin contact with Naruto in any shape or form. To amplify this, he then shoved the snacks across the table, imploring Naruto to pick it up himself. He did so with a slight scowl, scooping the food into his arms and quickly making his way onto the Konoha streets.

From there, he made his way up onto the rooftops, ignoring the gazes of ire that he'd receive from the passersby. It was strange, he thought as he climbed up the back ladder of some old shut building. He didn't know if he preferred not knowing why people ignored him so much or knowing but not being able to do anything about it. Any way you sliced it; Minato had started him off with a pretty shit hand. No guardian and an inbuilt people-repellent that also happened to be a literal demon. Cool. The anger that came with these thoughts flowed through to his hand, the boy clutching his soda can with enough force to dent it somewhat.

A light breeze began to flow in, putting a cap on his anger for the moment. While it wasn't quite as nice as the view he had from the abandoned "night patrol" building, he still appreciated the sight of the Konoha city scape being bathed in the night sky. The burning, fizzy sensation of the drink bled out from the can, running over his lips as he took a sip from it. He had no regrets about smashing that stupid fucking picture frame.

* * *

The bags under Sakura' eyes were essentially invisible to everyone else but to her, they felt like they were heavy enough to drag her down to the spirit realm. She smelt like washing powder and bleach, that much she could tell because Naruto had pointed it out to her rather rudely. She'd wanted to snap on him but held back for the moment. There should have been extra emphasis put on "the moment" because Sakura felt like she was ready to go off on the other boy at any second. Every laugh, joke and scream that had once been charming was suddenly irritating, pushing Sakura further and further to the point of blow up.

She had always been quiet but today she was uncharacteristically so. No phrases that were greater than two words ever escaped her mouth, each time she spoke being linked to a direct interaction from one of her teammates. Though it was selfish, she couldn't help but get even more frustrated at the fact that no one seemed to really notice (or care) that she had come out to the lake looking like a vampire and smelling like sun-dried soap. Naruto and Sasuke were too busy playing their stupid boat game and Kakashi had been going in and out the whole day, with little attention being placed onto Sakura herself.

It wasn't until Kakashi sent them on their way again (this time at five on the dot) that she fully let go. The prelude to her path of destruction was plotted out in obvious, "car crash in slow motion" fashion. The three were walking back through the forest stretch in a similar way to how they were the night before. This time, however, Sakura was trudging along the back, shooting functionally invisible glares at both Naruto and Sasuke. The two boys weren't exactly on the right foot with each other either, with their usual petty arguments having devolved into something more serious.

"Wash your fucking jacket." Sasuke snarled, glowering at Naruto with enough sharpness that the Uzumaki boy couldn't help but feel his friend was about to rip the piece of clothing off his body.

"I'm telling you, it's just gonna get dirty anyway!"

"So what, do you not brush your teeth either? They're just gonna get dirty anyway so why bother."

"Yeah, but I don't need clean clothes to be a good ninja. I probably need a decent set of teeth though."

"Doesn't change the fact that you smell like shit."

"I do not "smell like shit" dude, you're just being an asshole."

"The jacket is literally more brown than orange at this point."

"Yeah, but that's _dirt _not _shit_!"

"I wasn't saying it's literally shit, moron! I was saying _you smelled like shit_." Sasuke said, the constant dead ends he was running into obviously beginning to take a toll on his tone.

"Same difference in the end!" Naruto fired back, intent to not see the point of what Sasuke was saying.

"It's really not. All I'm saying is that you need to go to the goddamn laundromat, because _you stink_."

"Make me then!"

"**That's it!**" Sakura's voice came piercing into view, sending both Naruto and Sasuke spinning around to face her. Before either could react, she'd unzipped Naruto's jacket and tore it off his body before throwing it on the ground. From there, she proceeded to rain down a hail of stomps onto it, the force of which sent leaves fluttering up into the afternoon air.

"What the fuck?!" He exclaimed in anger, obviously shocked from seeing Sakura's abnormal display of fury.

"You're gonna have to fucking clean it now, huh?" Sakura growled animalistically, throwing the now totally stained jacket back to Naruto. It took the boy a few seconds to fully compute the information that Sakura had spat out at him before his expression began to transform to one that was even more annoyed than it was before.

"Why the hell'd you do that?!" He yelled back.

"Were you listening? **Now you have to clean it**." She repeated. Her words were true, with the boys track jacket now having been _drenched _by the residual water that clung to the dirt ground.

"Now you're getting all on my case as well huh?"

"I am, because I'm tired of getting in trouble for _**your bullshit**_ Naruto! If you'd just washed your damn jacket before you graffitied the memorial, then the rest of us wouldn't have had to stay back!"

Naruto was obviously taken aback by Sakura's newfound cruelty, taking a few seconds to gauge his response. It was a quiet one, tailor made to try and scale back from the sudden animosity. Unfortunately, it would only serve to achieve the opposite result.

"Chill out. You only had to stay for a couple extra hours, what's it to you?"

Sakura saw red.

"Because I have things I need to do! I have actual responsibilities that I have to make sure are covered or my mum rakes me over the coals! That's your problem Naruto, your mind is off in the fucking clouds and you have _no idea_ how to handle any real responsibility because you _have no parents_ _to keep you in check and even if you did, you'd hate them for it anyway!_"

Naruto visibly crumpled at the insult, eyes becoming downcast while his posture became the perfect illustration for the word uncomfortable. Sakura would've felt bad if she'd been running on anything but the thoughts of having to scrub down her dress hours after she'd wanted to go to bed. Sakura sharply inhaled, preparing to unleash a barrage of abuse far greater than her prior one but she was swiftly cut off.

"Hey." Sasuke said, silencing her for the moment. His face was overall blank, but there was obvious fire behind his eyes. "That's over the line. Apologize right now."

Maybe it was the way her crush was looking at her, maybe it was how downtrodden Naruto seemed, maybe it was the air of alienation that began to pinch and pull at her throat. It could've been a lot of things, but what was for certain is that Sakura began to feel force swelling from the deepest reaches of her subconscious. Inner-Sakura had been lying in wait, _itching _for a chance of self-destruction, and she'd just taken the wheel.

_**Oh antisocial pretty boy wants to talk to me now…fuck him! Fuck him and fuck his dumb-ass friend.**_

"Stop defending him Sasuke! He thinks because there's no one in his life that can tell him what to do, that it's the same for everyone, _well it's not!_ He thinks his stupid dumbass decision don't affect anyone else. _They do_. He just fucks things up. _You fuck things up so hard that you can't even resist taking everyone else with you while you're fucking up! _Now **I'm **a fuck up because I'm stuck carrying around- "

"Sakura?" Naruto's voice snapped her out of her ravings. Her eyes may as well have been closed since she started her rant, and now that they had been forced back open, she noticed things were a lot different. Naruto's look of shame and sadness had been replaced with one of concern and it was directed straight at her. Then she felt the warmness that was running down her cheeks. Her fingertips were raised upward to gauge the sensation, bringing back wetness in its wake. She was crying.

"Are you okay?" Naruto said. His tone was completely pure of malice but ripe with genuine concern. His eyes had shifted from demoralized to worried in the literal blink of them, with not a single drop of lingering resentment being visible. Inner-Sakura began to stir harder than she had been before, the boiling heat from her rage hot enough to set her hair ablaze.

_**You good for nothing, ungrateful, dumb as rocks, fake nice, piece of shit, vindictive little fucking-**_

"I'm sorry."

Sakura's words went unmatched by anything resembling interaction. Silence rested upon the trio's discourse, the sound of birds chirping beginning to become more and more prominent. That was until Sakura collapsed onto her knees, hands covering her face in what was a futile attempt at hiding the scattershot range of emotions that had been plastered onto her.

"_Oh god_, I'm sorry." The way she spoke would have been robotic had her words not been slurred by the nots forming in her throat. As soon as she hit the ground though, Naruto slid down to her side with (ironically) little care for the state of his clothes.

"Woah. Easy." He said as Sakura continued to sob on the ground. He didn't get much in the way of direct communication back however, with Sakura continuing to mutter "I'm sorry" over and over again while tears streamed down her eyes. They stayed like that for a little while, Naruto watching over her in concern while Sakura offered up apology after apology. No matter how much he said that it was okay, it never seemed to placate her. The "sorrys" continued to keep on spilling out of Sakura's mouth to the point that Sasuke (from his outsider perspective) started to think they were involuntary. It was a long three minutes until she stopped talking, and four until she took her hands away from her face. Even with her eyes fully exposed, she seemingly refused to look Naruto in the eye. The place where the tears once pooled up in had become a well of shame that Sakura continued to rub.

"Are you okay?" Naruto asked once more, once more attempting direct contact. Sakura offered nothing verbally in response, just staring down at her feet before nodding slightly. Silence again filled the air, neither party knowing quite what to say to the other. That was until Naruto did something unexpected. He grinned the same big grin he always did, it's brightness somehow completely unaffected by the torrent of insults that had been unloaded onto him. Sakura was taken off guard by its appearance, only becoming more surprised as the boy muttered:

"You wanna hang out?"

* * *

Sakura sipped on her water, still wiping away at her reddened eyes as she watched the blossoming Konoha nightlife. The last songs of the sun had begun to be flushed out by the oncoming luna symphony, with the bustling crowds and streetlights taking its place. It was pretty, she thought. If this is what night patrol usually entailed than she had definitely been missing out.

"Wow, your mum sounds like a bitch." Naruto idly said, both he and Sasuke having been filled in on the situation moments prior. The Uzumaki boy was dressed in a freshly washed hoodie devoid of any dirt stains or graffiti residue. Sakura laughed at his crudeness, placing her plastic bottle down on the rooftop.

"I know, right?" The relief in her voice was palpable, and for good reason. It felt nice to finally be able to talk to someone about these things, and it felt nicer that they understood.

"Your dad sounds like a bitch as well." Sasuke added.

"Maybe he was, I didn't know him for long enough to find out." She joked, completely torpedoing her self in the process. She didn't mind it too much. After her massive freak out today, she'd have to be willing to self-deprecate a little bit (although this could be considered a big bit when you realized she was no stranger to doing it in the past either, and doing it more would only amplify it.)

"When can you move out?" Sasuke asked, unknowledgeable about the laws in question for obvious reasons. Sakura looked back at him with a light grimace.

"When I turn seventeen which kinda sucks."

"I bet." He shot back.

"It's not fun living with a person who just tells you how lame you are all the time, ya know?" She muttered, jitters from the discussions uncharted territory still lingering in her voice. There was a small pause, Sasuke's face twisting slightly as he tried to figure out the words to say. He'd hadn't been good at communicating since the massacre, even in conversations with light topics so to say this was out of his wheelhouse would be an understatement. However, he still spoke, albeit incredibly low and barely louder than a whisper.

"Well, I think you're pretty cool."

Silence continued. Sakura's cheeks became flushed, the girl's mind moving at one hundred miles an hour yet still not being fast enough to find any words that would let her make conversation. Sasuke's face became a similar shade of red, though he attempted to hide it by looking in the other direction and sinking into the collar of his shirt. The pair might've gotten through the interaction unphased had Naruto not been watching with a sharp eye and a mischievous grin.

"Oh, aren't you two just the dang cutest?" He joked, which caused Sasuke's gaze to lock onto him with murderous intent.

"**Shut the fuck up**!" He growled, socking Naruto in the arm for good measure. The blond boy just laughed, even despite the fact that his friend had probably hit him as hard as he possibly could. Sakura in the meanwhile, took the chance to divert any attention from herself. Her gaze became cast out long towards the street, taking in the flashing lights from down below. Her mother would give her hell for this but she didn't care. She'd been berated for two nights already, what difference would a third make. Besides, it was worth it. She was out having fun with her friends.

_Her friends_.

She was going to take the chunin exam. She just felt like she needed too now, to prove to them, her shit-head mother and her absentee dad that she wasn't some third wheel. She was someone of her own.

_**Click!**_

"Lights went off." Naruto commented, taking a break from squabbling with Sasuke. The Uchiha in question dropped any wrath that he had been directing at Naruto, replacing it with interest in the event at hand. The nearby supermarket had gone dark.

"It's getting earlier every night."

Sakura looked at the two of them with a questioning gaze.

"What's this about?"

"Nothing much. The owner of that store down there is just a complete weirdo and the store itself keeps closing at all these different times." Naruto explained.

"It's one hundred percent a front for something." Sasuke said. If you had asked him for specifics at this moment in time, he would've said money laundering. This would be wrong, a fact that would be revealed to them the following morning when the same weirdo store owner would be found strung up by one foot from a riverbank tree. He'd been caught planting the drugs that had started Team Sevens current mission and had fallen victim to a snoozing Kakashi's trap. There were a lot of questions to be asked, namely why he decided planting illegal substances like frolic in a completely public area was a good idea, but those were better to be asked by the chunin who took him to jail. For the most part, Team Seven just laughed about it. They laughed really hard


	20. The Jinchuriki Hunt I

_Naruto's heavy eyes shot open with haste, only to become lazy as they rested on the large, blurry waterbody that sat above him. Even though it was a visually-impressive sight, Naruto had come to associate it almost completely with negative feelings. Not only was his slumber now interrupted, but it meant he had to interact with __**him**__. _

Laughter rippled through the seemingly endless landscape, Naruto shuffling around onto his side to see a pair of red eyes peering back at him from behind a gate. The gate stretched on as long and ostensibly infinitely as the murky abyss itself, only adding to the surreal feel of the area. The creature's crimson eyes were the only thing aside from Naruto that contained any color in the landscape (though even that was debatable with the scenes monochromatic lighting making even his own skin look dimly yellow). Naruto distinctly groaned, stepping up to his feet with an obvious weight behind the action. He noticed the floor underneath him jitter slightly, ripples extending across the flooring, stretching on for god knows how long until they either subsided or simply feel out of view. Any light in the "room" seemed to radiate from Naruto specifically, so anything past a certain distance may as well have been invisible.

Naruto felt his head start to fog up with the thick dreamlike smog that radiated from every square inch of this place. His actual cognitive ability here was somewhat lacking (even more so than usual), every action being met with a megaton of thoughts attempting to remember if he had indeed done the thing he had just done. It made navigating the area a chore, with Naruto having to desperately cling onto even the slightest bit of lucidity if he wanted to traverse the plane properly. Luckily enough, there was one thing that he could use to completely clear his mind while here, that being the spike of anger that swelled up when he heard the caged beast's rigid laughter. It somehow sounded so far away, yet also like it was being sent directly into

"Hey you! Can it, I'm trying to get some sleep before my big mission tomorrow!" Naruto growled, wandering towards the front of the gate. Light bounced off of him, slithering up the gate before further illumining the creature behind it. With the burden of light being place onto it, the beasts true form was revealed. He was distinctly fox-like in his shape, with ears as pointy as kitchen knives and fur as scarlet as newly forged metal. His body was disgustingly boney, with ribs and other assorted parts of his frame being so prominent, Naruto thought they might be breaking through the skin. The imperfections that lay on him didn't stop there though. His aforementioned fur had been left in an utterly disgusting state. Patches of it went unmatted, sticking up in clumps only to trail down to smoother streaks, too soft for their own good. You could just about make out patches of his skin from under them, the fur formerly used for protection beginning to malt off to a small degree. Despite all of that, his face remained locked in the same repulsive smile. It showed off the state of his teeth, each one pearly white and long enough that they stretched out his gums. His eyes, in the meanwhile, were sharp and mocking, contorting in a cruel, scornful gaze that balanced on the midway point between anger and hilarity.

With all that into account, what Naruto found the most unnerving about the fox (even on his dozenth or so time seeing him) was his overwhelming size. The fox was physically bigger than the massive gate that kept him at bay, having to slump downwardly if Naruto was to see his face. Speaking of the gate, Naruto was incredibly glad that it somehow existed in this world because if it wasn't, there was no doubt in his mind that the fox could kill him with little but a swipe of his paw. If this fox was somehow able to escape from his mindscape, he'd tower over a majority of the Konoha skyline even when on all fours.

"**Uzumaki Naruto**…" He murmured to himself, though even a murmur from the beast was louder than the biggest yell Naruto himself could muster.

"Other way around, my name's Naruto Uzumaki dumbass. Can't you read?" His tone was strong with its language, reasoning that he could talk as much shit as he wanted. If the fox was able to kill him, it would've done it already. That being said, his voice quickly lowered in volume though it was not because of the gargantuan eldritch terror that was in front of him but because he had just realized what he'd said. "Wait, obviously you can't read, you're a fox."

"**I assure you Uzumaki, I am far more well-read than you are and ever will be**." The fox spat out with clear distain in his voice. Naruto looked back at him with a slightly-faltering smirk.

"Oh yeah? What's this say?" He paused for a second, riffling through the pockets of his track jacket only to come up empty. "…have you got a pen?"

The fox said nothing in response, letting the absolute stupidity of the question speak for him. Naruto, noticing this, awkwardly shuffled his hands into his pockets to make it seem like that's what he'd been doing instead of trying to will a pen into existence. His mouth screwed up into a pout as he tried to regain his train of thought, eyes gazing down at the ground.

"What was I saying? Oh yeah! Look, Kuwama- "

"**Kurama**."

"Whatever your name is! You've got to stop waking me up at night! I go to sleep to go to sleep, not to stay up late and talk with you." Naruto explained, rather casually considering he was speaking with a literal demon that slept inside him. Yet again, however, Kurama refused to speak, instead peering down at Naruto with the same contemptuous "Cheshire cat" smile he always did.

_**BANG!**_

His paw came shooting forward, serrated claws squeezing through the gaps in the gate. While he was at no actual threat thanks to the distance, the sight of this eldritch horror taking a stab at him to send Naruto stumbling back with fear in his eyes. The Uzumaki boy's balance was so put-off that he ended up falling backwards onto his ass, an action that Kurama found most amusing (yet at the same time he weirdly looked disappointed). A few seconds passed, ripples from Naruto's fall bouncing through the water-like flooring. It wasn't until he realized that he was far out of Kurama's potential range that he managed to stand back up again, face flaring up with irritation.

"What the fuck'd you do that for?!" Naruto screamed, throwing a pointed finger outward for no real reason. Kurama didn't reply immediately, instead shutting his eyes (small victories) and laughing to himself. It wasn't the same laugh as before, the organ-like bellowing that served to taunt and alarm Naruto. No, this time it was a small sharp giggle that was only direct towards himself.

"**You're incredibly disappointing Uzumaki boy. For all your big talk about becoming Hokage, I would expect you to have a little bit more self-confidence. At the very least keep the flinching to a minimum."**

"How do you know about, like, any of that?" Naruto asked, voice still shaky from Kurama's scare tactics. It wasn't like he could really recall having a conversation with the fox ever, let alone one about his goals and aspirations

"**You complete fool. I see everything you see and **_**feel **_**everything you feel. For all intents and purposes, I am the physical manifestation of your subconscious being."**

Naruto stared at him blankly for a few seconds, before his face shifted into a determined scowl.

"Yeah, well, if you're just in my head, then why should I give a single shit about you? The Fourth put you inside of me and that's where you're gonna stay for the rest of your life."

"**Let me shatter the illusion of my lifespan outright Uzumaki. The very nature of my existence is a topic far beyond your comprehension but I will tell you this. I was birthed into the world before you were even a concept and I assure you I will still be here on the day that you **_**die**_**." **

Naruto felt a shiver run down his spine, fear running through his blood and freezing it cold. He knew it would only be a few seconds before that same fear began to eat at his face and turned around as so to make sure Kurama couldn't feed on the proverbial "blood in the water". He thrust his hands back behind his head in a transparently fake attempt to look relaxed, masking his features from the creature behind him.

"Good stuff Big K, real cool chat. I'm going to go back to sleep now, so if you don't mind- "

"**Oh, I very much do Uzumaki. I mind that you think I am a bad dream that will drift away with the tides of slumber, but I very much am not. I am as much a part of you as any goal or relationship your dimwit brain could conjure up." **

Naruto waved a hand back at him, still not willing to show Kurama his face.

"Whatever."

While Naruto's voice was obviously wobbly in its pitch, his apparent disregard for the situation did phase Kurama enough that he felt it was time to pull out one of the cards that he'd been saving for these moments. See, Naruto had only recently learnt about his true nature as the nine-tails jinchuriki, and had only even more recently started interacting with Kurama in any fashion at all. Even then, those interactions served as little more than staying on his back and trying to go back to sleep while Kurama laughed. This meant the fox had had thirteen years' worth of observation and knowledge on Naruto which conversely meant thirteen years' worth of masterfully crafted insults and manipulation.

"**I can show you her, you know?**"

Naruto stopped on his heel, arms falling to the side. Kurama's full smile somehow extended even further up his face at the sight. The water that glided over the two of them began to echo with words and memories too distorted to hear, muted streaks of red becoming slightly visible in it's current.

"**Just come a little bit closer**." The nine-tailed beast goaded, eyes beginning to slant with sinister intent. Naruto turned his head back, the edges of his eyes just barely being visible to Kurama, but even that small sliver of the soul's window gave Kurama all the satisfaction he'd been hoping for. It was obvious Naruto was at least considering it, and while Kurama didn't think it would be this easy, he certainly wouldn't complain had it been. Unfortunately, his initial thoughts were reaffirmed as Naruto turned his head back away from him.

"I don't know how that big gate works, but I'm not going to fuck around and let you out. I'm not stupid."

"**You could've fooled me**."

Naruto began to walk away once more, attempting to put off how angry it was. He wasn't exactly what you'd call "rational" but he was at least smart enough to realize getting outwardly madder at the fox would be an effort in pointlessness. Instead, he just did what he should've done from the very start of this meeting: lay on the ground with his arms stretched out under his head. He didn't know the specifics of going to sleep while you were already technically asleep but he knew that most of the time it worked and that was enough. Enough at least, until he heard Kurama laughing. Against his better judgement, Naruto flicked his head up and looked back at the monster.

"Whatever you're laughing at can't be _**that **_funny."

"**Indeed, it is.**" Kurama said, with a glint in his eye that was even more unnerving than the one usual present. "**Big things are on the horizon, Uzumaki Naruto. Things you cannot even hope to predict or grasp. Events that will shatter and twist your worldview until it's an unrecognizable shell of itself, demented by your own ambition and greed. I just want you to know that when that happens, I'll be happy to take charge."**

Naruto tried to block out the fox's words, laying sideways on his left ear but couldn't help but feel the knots start being tied in his stomach. Kurama was scary. _Really scary_.

* * *

The effects of the night were present in the eyebags that Naruto had been sporting the following day. The fatigue didn't really do anything to bother him though, the boy's natural energy being more than strong enough to fight through any weariness for the moment. Afterall, it was a mission and not only that, but a travelling overnight mission so his excitement was even more palpable than usual. To be honest, the actual contents of the assignment weren't anything special. Konoha was running low on effrayed, a herb that was grown primarily in the mist and the lightning and could be used to treat symptoms of fever. You didn't need to go as far as the aforementioned villages to find it, but due to Konoha's naturally warm temperatures, it didn't start to appear naturally until you were decently far out from Konoha. Team Seven had been put on the duty of retrieving the herbs, a burden that required two- or three-days' worth of travel.

Luckily for them, the first day already seemed to have flown past if the setting sun was any indication. The team had set up camp upon a short stretch of turf that extended just outside of the forest they had been wandering through. It was mostly made of rock, with a layer of fresh-smelling green grass glazing over its surface. As it stretched onward, its stone began to erode in the face of the powerful lake that ran along with it. This erosion caused the very edge of the turf to transform into something that resembled a makeshift pier, only _just _taller than the tide itself. The setting sun had begun sending out rays of amber-tinged sunlight through the air. This was its desperate last gasp for life before the moon swallowed it for the day, though it would soon return to go through the same process the next.

Kakashi balanced on the lakeside jetty, taking in the chilling air that ran past him constantly. He guessed that must were probably close to the plant's location, but didn't bother to pull out the map he'd been given. With as many years of experience as a shinobi as he had, Kakashi's mind essentially came equipped with a high-functioning GPS.

"Hey, sensei!" Naruto screamed, gaining the man's attention. He could immediately tell the boy was going to ask him a stupid question from how Sasuke was grimacing and Sakura was close to breaking out in laughter. Because of this, Kakashi couldn't help but sigh as he focused a bored eye on Naruto and the other two that were bunched up around the campfire.

"What?"

"If a guy with arms for legs and a guy with legs for arms got into a fight, who would win?"

"Obviously the guy with legs for arms, the one with arms for legs wouldn't be able to walk properly." Kakashi said, actively feeling stupid for even bothering to answer.

"Told you." Sasuke said, trying intently to make it seem like he wasn't taking vindication in his senseis answer. Naruto, on the other hand, twisted his face up into a scowl.

"No no no! You guys aren't taking into account the flexibility factor."

"The flexibility factor is nothing Naruto. Just because a hand can make an "o" shape with its fingers doesn't mean it can do anything in combat when it's stuck to your leg." Judging from Sasuke's response, Kakashi could guess that the other two genin had been fully informed on the ins and outs of "the flexibility factor".

"It does! Why can't the guy just make a flat shape with his hands and walk like that?"

"Because the foot is designed for walking, the hand isn't."

"What if he uses his fingers like tippy toes?!"

"_Unless this guy has fat fucking sausage fingers, they would break immediately!' _Sasuke growled, showing an unusual amount of emotion. This display was enough to send Sakura off into a laughing fit, while also somehow not dissuading Naruto from continuing to argue the benefits of "the flexibility factor". Kakashi just looked back at the river, attempting to block out any semblance of the conversation from his brain. He almost couldn't believe that these were the kids that he'd entrusted the responsibility of the chunin exams too, but he supposed judging them purely on a stupid conversation would be unfair. God knows he and his friends used to be the exact same way….

_The exact same way. _

Kakashi caught himself only seconds before he plunged headfirst into a catacomb of memories that he thought were best long forgotten. He couldn't help it most of the time, they were like a drug. A temporary rush of dopamine that would let him be dizzyingly happy for around five minutes before the whiplash of it all caught up to him. He turned his head back towards the camp fire, forsaking himself to what had probably transformed into yet another stupid Naruto and Sasuke debate in order to try and occupy himself for the moment.

* * *

The soft dirt path shook and squelched under the weight of Team Sevens feet as they made there way along it. They'd departed from the camping spot early in the morning, making there way down a path which of course led to more forestland. The main pathway was large, bottoming out in between two hills, almost like a trench. Most of the rising sunlight was blocked out by the treetops, with only a few select rays managing to pierce through.

"I'm not saying the guy with the arms for legs would win, but I'm just trying to have the discussion."

"Bullshit Naruto, that's always what you say when you're losing." Sasuke spat out at his friend.

"Who's deciding I'm losing, you? You're not even taking into account- "

"I swear to god if you mention the flexibility factor one more time, I'm going to punch you in the face."

"Do it then!" Naruto yelled back, throwing his hands up in the air like he was to throw down.

"Oh! Fight, fight, fight." Sakura egged on from the side, not expecting either to get into an actual scrap ("I'm gonna kick your ass" was easily the most used phrase between the two boys, and they'd not actually thrown down once). To be fair, this was somewhat misinformed as Sasuke had actually been planning on slapping Naruto over the head and then saying "how's that for the flexibility factor?", but instead decided upon a more lingual approach to insulting him.

"I was just joking Naruto. There's no way I could punch someone who's not going to take the chunin exam, it'd be like hitting a little kid."

Sakura's mouth curled up into a smile-like "o" shape while a rain of punches (obviously not full powered) rained down against Sasuke's arm.

"I'm still thinking about it, alright?" Naruto growled, immediately growing self-conscious as soon as he pulled away from scuffling with his friend. The talk of the chunin exams finally drew the attention of Kakashi, who had been silent for a majority of the morning.

"Deadlines coming up in two weeks, so you'll have to make a choice eventually."

"Yeah, I know." He grumbled. They'd been training hard for the exam, with Naruto even having to cut out the extra practice he usually did when he got home because he was so exhausted. Taijutsu had gone from a faint outline to second nature in each of the teammate's heads, even if Sasuke was the only one out of them who was really that much above average (without using jutsu that is). All three of them could also essentially recite the "how to spot a genjutsu" text book word-for-word, which was a necessity in the current shinobi climate.

Honestly, Kakashi gauged their chances of doing well in the exam at a statistical high. Sasuke was significantly more talented than expected of an even mid-way through their tenure genin, Naruto's chakra control weak point was an afterthought when you considered how much of the stuff he had to burn and Sakura, for what she lacked in raw ability, made up for it in intelligence. Should they decide to take the exams, Kakashi would expect at least one of them to make it to the final stage.

"Hey, Kakashi." Sasuke said, the fact that he was even attempting to make conversation serving as a surprise to the older man.

"Hm?"

"You've done the chunin exam before. What does it actually entail?"

"The final stage is always a combat tournament but aside from that, everything else is randomized. Some chunin exams have had three stages, some have had twenty and the stages very rarely carry over. If they do, they are always stages from back further than the difference between our generations."

Sasuke waited a little while before asking his next question.

"In that combat tournament you mentioned. Is there a possibility that you fight your teammates as well?"

"Depending on how you do in the initial round, sure." Kakashi absent mindedly said back. Before Sasuke could even take time to think about this, Naruto was already halfway in his ear.

"You better hope you're not matched with me dude; I'll beat the shit out of you."

"I thought you, and consequently, _we_ weren't doing them?"

"Yeah but if we did, I'd kick your ass."

"Bullshit." Sasuke replied, taking a couple of play swipes at Naruto, who quickly reciprocated them. Kakashi and Sakura both decided to take their attention off the squabbling two, redirecting it to the front of the path. There, they saw something very unusual. Kakashi held his hand out in front of the three genin, halting even Naruto and Sasuke in their tracks once they collided with it. At the top of the dirt road, stood a man. He was short, plump and old, that much was obvious, but his face was completely obscured thanks to the large paper map in front of him. He wore a bright blue robe that was pinned high on his chest, but still draped down to the tips of his ankles. A large satchel had been tied around his waist, which Kakashi suspected was made of leather from the way it looked. The hand that wasn't holding the map, was clutched onto a large paper umbrella, seemingly useless except for aesthetic purposes.

Team 7 stood motionless for a few seconds, watching the man ruffle around with the map. He was seemingly oblivious to their presence, a fact that Naruto noticed.

"**Hey!**" He screamed, prompting the man to tear his face away from the map. His head was round and fat, covered in an obviously receding tuft of white hair. His moustache (similar in color) also seemed to be weakening, with strands of it looking uneven on his upper-lip. This, combined with the wrinkled, dotted state of his skin made him look distinctly sickly. He smiled at the group upon seeing them, managing to look sweet despite the state of his looks.

"Hello! Do you know happen to know the way to the Hidden Leaf Village?" He asked.

Then he collapsed.

* * *

"_Is he dead_."

"_No, he's still got a pulse. Sakura, could you fetch some more water?"_

"_Yes sensei."_

"_His face is really manky." _

"_Don't be rude Naruto."_

"_Oh, come on, I'm totally right Kakashi-sensei! Aren't I Sasuke?" _

"_Well…"_

"_Oh, come one!" _

"_I mean, he does kind of look like a zombie." _

"**Ah!**" The man's eyes cracked open, sending a light that was far too bright beaming directly into his corneas. The sensation caused him to push himself upward, attempting to bring stability back to his figure, which he had realized was grounded. Before he could hope to get a further grip on the land though, a gentle hand pushed him back down.

"Woah, woah. Easy there." Kakashi said. A few more blinks and the man began to fully relax himself, an action that was easier to do when you could actually see the people that were crowded around you.

"Who are you?" The man said, tugging the collar of his robe upwards.

"I'm Kakashi Hatake, Konoha shinobi, ranked jonin. These three are part of my genin squad." Kakashi passed the man his identification card, though this was little more than a formality.

"H-hello, I'm Ookami Hitsuji."

There was an awkward pause before Kakashi raised his eyebrow.

"…And?"

"O-Oh. I'm a chakra researcher from the land of bubbles." Ookami stammered. His voice was shaky, constant emphasis being put on the wrong syllables of his words. Kakashi would've found it funny had he not just seen the man crumple like paper.

"A Kiri sect, I presume?"

"Y-yes."

"Even if you live on the border, that's still a decent journey to get here. Any particular reason you decided to take it."

The man's face folded like wet paper, even more so then it had been when he was speaking normally.

"I have a specific heart condition that I need to get checked out. Kiri doesn't have particularly good health services, and I've heard _very _good things about Konoha's medical ninjutsu programs."

Kakashi took a small second to properly compute the information he'd just received before explaining his plan.

"We've just travelled in from Konoha and while the path itself isn't particularly dangerous, I can't see a person who's prone to collapse being able to make it through. We're currently on a mission to retrieve a batch of effrayed and will be doing a round trip back to the leaf. I can't force you, but if you value your life at all, I'd recommend sticking with us."

Ookami immediately nodded his head, almost violently so.

"O-Of course, thank you Mr. Hatake!" He sputtered. Kakashi would of talked further with him, but spotted Sakura making her way back to camp with the waterskin.

"Oh, there she is. Excuse me." He idly said, standing up to go meet the girl and fill her in on the information he'd just received. Ookami in the meanwhile, began to riffle through his satchel, making sure his belongings were all still in place. Luckily for him they were, with even his umbrella having been placed alongside where he'd been sitting. After breathing a sigh of relief, Ookami noticed that he was on the receiving end of two dead-eyed stares belonging to both Naruto and Sasuke. It was a few seconds before either one of them spoke up, the actual dialogue being delivered by a suddenly grinning Naruto.

"Hey, if a guy with arms for legs and a guy with legs for arms got into a fight, who would win?"

* * *

Ookami was an odd man. Not in a bad way, but definitely enough that Sakura and Sasuke were watching any action of his with a demeaning curiosity. He held the umbrella up over himself at all times, as if he were in the middle of a particularly wet storm. In reality, the only thing that the sky held was the warm afternoon sun and the occasional breeze that came with it. Occasionally, he would open up the satchel and fish out a shiny brass stopwatch. Each and every time he did this, he would look at the device with dismay before plopping it back in the bag. Often times the absolute death glares he would give the watch would be enough that both Sasuke and Sakura would have to bite their tongues to suppress any laughter that was bubbling up inside them.

Naruto, to his credit, was either too dumb or too nice to really find much humor in the man's irregularities (Sakura suspected it was the latter since Naruto was essentially in stitches should Sasuke mispronounce a single word) but was obviously somewhat peeved that Ookami's presence was slowing them down. He moved about as quickly as you'd expect a fat man who's first impression to you was fainting to which meant that it started to become dark long before they reached the Effrayed patch. Team Seven launched into action, popping the rolled up sleeping bags off their backs and setting up camp in less than five minutes.

The campfire was weaker than the one they had lit the night before, an obvious side-effect of moving closer towards the mist. The genin were forced to shuffled closer to it, Sakura in particular having to tie frills of her dress into a knot to make sure they didn't catch ablaze.

"Are we all stocked up on food and water?" Ookami said in the same shaky tone that lingered in his whenever he spoke. At first Kakashi had thought it was just a side-effect of his collapse, but had quickly realized that he talked like this one-hundred percent of the time.

"We should be fine. You three all have your water skin's filled up right?"

"Yep."

"Yeah."

Sakura and Naruto both voiced their answers, whereas Sasuke simply nodded.

"Cold out here, isn't it?" Kakashi said, absent-mindedly running a kunai through his fingers. "I'm sure you're used to it though Ookami."

"Oh yes. You know what they say, it takes a blizzard to chill a Kiri resident." Kakashi laughed, though his students could all tell it was a conversational one more so than a show of appreciation for the other man's humor.

"So, the land of bubbles. Where abouts is that?"

"West Kiri, a long long way away from here. It's a just a bit up from where the whirlpool used to be"

"Interesting. See, in Konoha we don't have sects as much. It's just all Konoha." Kakashi said with a joking tone, one that was reciprocated (perhaps a little bit too hard) from the man in front of him.

"Not too surprising considering you've only ever had one democratic election in your countries history." Ookami replied.

"Well, you're coming out to see _our_ doctors so don't knock it until you try it."

"You've got me there Mr. Hatake." Ookami said, shakiness in his voice replaced with slight humor.

"Speaking of which, it must've been a long trip if you're from west Kiri and just arrived around here. How long ago did you leave?"

"A week or two, I think." The white-haired man said, stroking a finger through his mustache as if the question was no big deal.

"Have you got any family in Kiri?" Sakura asked from the campfire, only vaguely interested in the actual information but wanting to make conversation anyway.

"I have a wife, well, _had _a wife." His expression went from quirkily bug-eyed to noticeably downcast very quickly. The fire crackled, its embers cracking and sputtering out much like his eccentricity just had.

"I'm sorry for your loss." Kakashi said, tone obviously sympathetic.

"It's fine Mr. Hatake. I was a young man when I lost her, I've obviously had quite a bit of time to recuperate from it." He hummed, leaning against the ground with a somber buzz in his voice. With the mention of his wife, the occasional peculiarities within Ookami's voice noticeably faded.

"How old are you now?" Naruto asked, suddenly speaking up.

"Naruto, don't be rude!" Sakura chided, gently punching his arm. The Uzumaki boy was more confused than anything at the response, face shriveling up into a pout.

"What?! If he's a gazillion years old, who cares? It just means he's had time to see shit. Nothing embarrassing about that."

Surprisingly, Naruto's bluntness actually brought a smile too the man's face. It was a goofy one that stretched along his face, displaying every single one of his old worn teeth but that just made it homelier.

"I turned seventy a few months back. How old are you four?"

"I'm fourteen, they're both thirteen." Sakura, said motioning a hand towards Naruto and Sasuke, before turning to Kakashi with faux confusion. "Sensei, you're thirty-eight, right?"

"_**Twenty**_-eight." He replied, immediate defensiveness blinding him of Sakura's joking nature. This, of course, only made the gag that much funnier to the genin. Ookami took less humor in this, turning to Kakashi with an apologetic smile.

"Don't worry about them Mr. Hatake. If there was a way I could turn back time and be thirty-eight again, I'd do it in a heartbeat."

"You have any stories from back then?" Kakashi asked, obviously at least somewhat interested in what they had to say.

"Oh, ho ho, you bet I do. I remember, it was one of the colder Kiri seasons, maybe autumn. This'd be around forty years back I reckon. I was with Monet, my wife, and my friend Kurta. Now, Kurta, I'll tell you, was a crazy motherfucker-_pardon_." He temporarily cut off the story to apologize for his swearing, but the tales continued until long into the night. Ookami rambled on, the second-hand nostalgia of his stories serving to further engross the four thanks to the warmth of the fire. By the time the old man was ready to hit the hay, Team Seven could find themselves recounting vivid memories of events long past, only to realize that it was actually a story Ookami had told with such detail, they'd subconsciously claimed it as their own for a little bit. For the rest of the night, each team member did a slight double take at every apparent reminiscence they had.

* * *

They managed to arrive at the effrayed patch around mid-morning the following day, a noticeable spring in every one's step. Kakashi quickly retrieved the large bag he'd been carrying upon his back, instructing everyone to fill it up with as much of the herb as it could physically carry. With that, they split off into three teams: Naruto and Ookami, Sasuke and Sakura and Kakashi by his lonesome. He'd have used a summoning contract to help himself out but the amount of wasted chakra a summoning used overruled his laziness in this instance.

Honestly, Sakura wasn't expecting the patch of plants to be so neatly farmed. According to Kakashi, the Leaf Village had a contract with some of the local farmers, entailing that the farmers would keep planting and nurturing assorted vegetation that didn't grow naturally in the Leaf (usually because they required cold cultivating conditions) in exchange for a year-round fee. Whatever they were paying was well worth it in her eyes, with the surrounding area having been overtaken by a stretch of lush green sprouts covered in violet bell-shaped sprouts. This was the form the effrayed took, its lavish crevasses filling out with the piercing rays of sunlight that loomed over it. Sakura looked over to Sasuke, picking one of the plants off the stem.

"Hey Sasuke, how much would I have to pay you to eat this?" She asked, taking a surprising amount of initiative within the conversation. Sasuke caused all of that to fizzle out with a single gaze. Sakura felt her heart drop as his eyes burrowed into her with a stare enriched with the pure essence of "what the fuck.""

_**BEEP! BEEP! Ditz detector is going off at an unprecedented volume! Seriously, what made you think that was a good idea to say?**_

The two became locked into a painfully awkward silence, one which lasted little more than five seconds but felt like two years (at least to Sakura). Then, out of nowhere, Sasuke's gaze softened.

"Thirty-five thousand ryo."

"Oh bullshit. I'll pay you seven-hundred." His answer was so egregiously high that Sakura didn't even have time to fawn over the fact that he was talking to her. Instead, her mind snapped to bartering mode.

"Thirty thousand."

"Seven hundred and a pack of gum."

"What type?"

"Trigs spearmint and pine."

"Fuck that. If you're going to give me spearmint and pine, you can pay me an extra five hundred ryo for the courtesy of taking it off your hands."

Sakura tried to come up with something resembling an argument but any words she had were quickly overruled by the bitter taste of the gum. Despite the fact that she had used and spat it out a few days before they'd left, she could still feel it's lingering essence of stale peppermint and cigarette smoke pine on the top of her mouth.

"That's fair."

Both she and Sasuke let out a laugh at the joke while continuing to toss the effrayed into their pockets. As the sound of humor bounced between them, Sakura couldn't help but feel a familiar slight blush tinge her cheeks. Maybe she was just seeing what she wanted to see, but it kind of, sort of, _totally_ felt like Sasuke was starting to warm up to her.

_**You're just seeing things. **_

* * *

"Picked anymore effrayed Mr Uzumaki?" Ookami asked, running a finger through the scarf that was now wrapped tightly around his neck. The crouched boy turned to him with a fist full of the violet bells, so much so that they were practically being squashed through the slits of his grip.

"You got it gramps." He said, depositing the herbs into Ookami's umbrella, which they had been using as a makeshift bucket. A beautiful bunching of blue ran up its steep curves, clusters of bells cluttering up the hard wood framing that traced over each panel of the parasols paper.

"Careful with those words child, I remember when I was your age I more than knew my way around a punch up." Ookami jested back.

"Yeah, well, you're not my age any more so I don't see how it matters."

"Ah. Nothing hurts more than the truth Young Uzumaki, I really walked into that one." The old man's words were rich with over-pronunciation (even more so than normal). After a little while, Naruto turned to him with an inquisitive look.

"Hey, gramps, what's your job again?"

"Chakra researcher, why do you ask?"

Naruto's expression seamlessly switched from curious to silly when presented with the question.

"Okay, I've had this question in my brain for a while but I couldn't find any books about it. Do frogs have chakra?"

"A regular frog?"

"Mm."

"No, at least not naturally. Their bodies simply don't have the necessary requirements to cultivate its own chakra network."

"Oh. Right, obviously." Naruto nodded along, trying to play it off like he'd never for one second thought that frogs could use chakra. Obviously, Ookami saw through this.

"Did you think they could use chakra?"

Maybe it was because of how dopey the man looked and acted most of the time, but Naruto wasn't even concerned enough about Ookami's opinion of him to bother lying.

"Yep." He wasn't even embarrassed, a sly smile breaking out onto his lips. "And they'd use little jutsus. Like, little tornados and stuff."

Ookami cracked a smile of his own at the Uzumaki's natural goofiness, soft sly laughter lingering in his voice. It was short lived however, the man's face lighting up with what at first looked like pain, only for his expression to settle on one closer to realization.

"We've got a lot of these flowers. Maybe it's time to hand them over to Mr. Hatake." He suggested, to which Naruto nodded. The pair made their way across the field, regrouping with Sasuke and Sakura along the way. From there, they surrendered their respective stashes of effrayed to Kakashi, having some left to spare even after they filled the bag up to the very brim.

"Welp, that's that. Unless we happen to somehow lose this massive bag, that's another D-rank completed."

Despite the missions low ranking and overall lack of prestige, the three genin couldn't help but get excited. After all, an extra completed mission on their profiles couldn't hurt.

"Once we depart from here, who knowns when the next stream is so just to check, all three of you have filled up your waterskins right?" Kakashi asked, being met with unanimous nods from his students.

"Are you sure?"

Once again, unanimous nods.

"…one hundred percent?"

"Kakashi, we've filled them up. Let's just get going." Sasuke said, annoyed.

"Alright, alright." Kakashi said, throwing the bag of flowers over his back and beginning to walk away from the scene. The trio followed after him, intent to track a similar path until a sudden obstruction was lodged in their way.

"Uh, sorry you guys. I have to go…_relieve _myself." Ookami said, being met with a resounding symphony of "_ew's_" from the genin. Kakashi shot him a look of annoyance, before waving him off with a hand.

"Do what you need to do."

The old man nodded taking a stroll out to the outer reaches of the forests. A whistled tone flew from his lips as he made his way through the depths of the trees. The forestry that ran around the patch of farmland was thick, masking the presence of anyone who orbited through it. Perfect for what Ookami was about to do. He took a short look back to where he came from, making sure that he wasn't, one, still in view or, two, being followed by one of the ninjas. You could never be too careful around Konoha nin after all.

With his privacy fully ensured, Ookami took the chance to let out what he'd been desperately attempting to hold in for the last few minutes.

"_**Ack!**_" He cried, blood pouring from his mouth and spilling onto the floor. The old man fully succumbed to the to the burning pain that had been set ablaze throughout his entire body. It was like every nerve was being shredded, every organ catching fire. Tears began to well up in his eyes from the sheer pain of it all, but he couldn't let them start to stream. He couldn't leave any marks for those bastards to see. Unfortunately, it took a solid minute for the agony to subside, its sudden withdrawal leaving him out of breath like he'd just been punched in the stomach.

He didn't have much time until they started to get suspicious, so every second had to count. The old man reached a shaky hand into his satchel, retrieving the brass stopwatch and watching it with fear. The small hand was incredibly close to reaching midnight, it's inexplicable time only layering a feeling of existing dread onto Ookami's ailing body.

_Damn it all! I've only got about a day left until I lose it forever. _

He looked over his shoulder studying the pattern that was slowly advancing up his own back. A massive patch of his skin had been dyed pure white; its qualities hardened like callous. Like an infectious parasite, it crawled up his skin justifying the presence of his newly-adorned scarf more and more. He knew it was going to grow like this, he just didn't know it would be this soon. His fingers grazed over the surface of the skin in an attempt to try and shot some feeling back into it. Regrettably, it did nothing of the sort. The only thing Ookami managed to kickstart was a jagged stinging sensation that burrowed through the confines of the patch of _**dark black ink **_that sat on his left shoulder.

_It's final. I need the the nine tailed boy's chakra.  
_


	21. The Jinchuriki Hunt II

The afternoon sun dwindled downwards, its closeness sending a radiant orange glow through the forest cliff. The patch of turf stretched on decently long considering its elevation off the ground. It stood up like a capital building when compared to the naturally low altitude of the path. The slope that connected them had natural eroded over time, to the point where its steepness had made climbing down a non-option. Kakashi had tried to explain this to his students, but both Naruto and Sakura had been far too smitten with the cliffs beautiful view to listen, claiming that their "legs were tired" and that they didn't want to navigate their way down. This was obviously a lie, as Naruto had been trying to bait Sasuke into a footrace no longer than thirty minutes before trotting out the excuse, but Kakashi couldn't blame them for the deceit. From the perch of land, you could really take in naturally-blossoming forests-scapes of Konoha, their natural beauty only being amplified by the sunbath of the setting sky.

The firmament became awash with the beginnings of the night, to the point where Kakashi swore he could see stars twinkling through the rapidly dying clouds. Despite this show, it was undeniable that the overall lighting had started to dim over the landscape, giving the world a glum blue hue to it. This, when combined with the occasional streaks of amber light that would manage to break away from the sun's grasp, formed a mesmerizing display of illumination. Kakashi swore he could've kept looking at it forever, but something else grabbed his attention.

"Woah, careful there Ookami." He said to the older man who had just stepped near the sole tree that stood in Team Sevens camp site. This was seemingly a harmless action, but Kakashi knew the true dangers of this. He motioned to the small trip wire that had been set up at feet. "White snake trap, be careful not to trigger it or you might end falling off the edge of the cliff."

Ookami's face was at first surprised (and inwardly scared) that he was being called out for a transgression, only to soften outwardly as he realized what Kakashi was talking about.

"Ah. Thank you, Mr. Hatake, I should try to be more careful." He said, with a curt smile.

"I'd say you were already ahead on that. Didn't you say just last night that it takes a blizzard to chill a Kiri resident?' He said, gesturing towards the other man's scarf. Ookami laughed, maybe a little bit too hard, as he attempted to prematurely deflect any suspicion Kakashi had. If he was alone, he would've cursed his condition for being in such an easy to see position.

"Well, I didn't expect it to be quite so biting you know? Not many fire style users in Kiri after all."

"Fair enough." Kakashi murmured back playfully, his bouncy tone indicating to Ookami that he was in the clear. In reality, He most certainly was not. There was one thought that instantly stuck out to Kakashi as he turned away, enough to at least light the initial match of weariness.

_It was colder when he wasn't wearing the scarf._

* * *

_He's still wearing it_. Kakashi mused to himself, watching Ookami out of the corner of his eye. The whole group was crowded around the fire, chowing down on the deer meat Kakashi and Naruto had caught earlier in the day. The copy ninja would've kept his attention fixated on Ookami, but unfortunately for everyone, there was an incident unfolding in front of him that was just waiting to exploding.

"_Shut the fuck up_ _Naruto!_ This is the third day you've been stuck on this dumbass topic and at this point I don't even care anymore." Sasuke growled, chucking a stray branch into the fire, which grew greater as if to visualize his growing anger. Naruto tried to stay serious, though his mouth still grew prone to slipping into a smirk. It was one of those rare times he'd actually managed to get Sasuke on the defensive in their squabbles though this was through no skill of his own of course. Naruto had not employed any fancy debating techniques or such to achieve this, instead he'd just continued to yammer on about "the flexibility factor". There was no rhyme or reason to it as far as Sasuke could tell, with the Uzumaki boy not actually explaining how the flexibility factor could actually help the man with arms for legs win the fight.

"Yeah, whatever. Nice ad homimim attack." Naruto said.

"Do you mean _ad hominem_?"

"I don't care how you say it, I just care that you're doing it."

Sasuke's gaze implied he was about to tackle Naruto to the ground and stuff the wild venison skewer he'd be eating into the other boy's eye. Kakashi saw this and stepped in, wanting to avoid any skewer related shenanigans.

"You two. Settle." Kakashi grumbled, which had the desired effect. Naruto went back to munching on his food, only to then click his mouth in disgust.

"Ah, I think the fire's making my mouth dry. I can feel the little buds on my tongue."

"Unless you've been sitting next to it for half an hour with your mouth open, I doubt the fire is the reason your mouths dry. When was the last time you drank water Naruto?" Kakashi asked.

"Before we picked the herbs."

"Well, that probably has something to do with it." He sarcastically murmured, amazed that Naruto had somehow lasted from mid-morning until now without realizing he was thirsty. "Drink now."

Naruto nodded, fishing through his pockets in search of his waterskin. What he found however, was a husk of nothingness, its material crinkling under his fingers and pushing only air outward.

"It's empty." He said, looking up confused.

"Would've been nice if it had been filled up when I reminded you." Kakashi said back.

"I had already filled it up by then!" Naruto shot back definitively.

"Then why is it empty now?"

He stayed silent. Upon realizing that the rhetorical question had effectively broken his brain, Kakashi mustered a large sigh before turning his gaze towards Sasuke.

"Sasuke, give him some of yours."

"No way, anytime he drinks, he puts his whole mouth over it."

"Do not!"

"Do so. I caught you with your own water tap ten centimeters down your throat just last week."

"Okay, so maybe once- "

"_Stop_." Kakashi barked, not wanting to experience another mind-numbing Sasuke and Naruto shit-flinging contest. "Just give him your waterskin Sasuke."

The Uchiha boy briefly looked as if he was going to refuse yet again, before reluctantly taking the pouch out of his pocket. Almost immediately, however, his face became more blank than anything else.

"Mines empty too."

"_Ha_!" Naruto exclaimed, while Kakashi let forth an even bigger sigh.

"Sakura?" He asked to which the girl took hers out as well. Immediately, her reaction became similar to Sasuke's

"Sorry sensei, mine's empty as well."

This is where Kakashi began to get suspicious. With Naruto, he could write the empty satchel off as the boy being kind of dim, with Sasuke, maybe he just didn't care enough in the moment to refill it but Sakura had _always _been very careful with these kinds of things. More than that, he'd _seen_ her take a sip from it after they had departed from the effrayed patch.

"That's very odd." Ookami said, only to notice Kakashi staring at him through the corner of his eye.

"Yes, very odd indeed."

"I guess it can't be helped though. Those things tend to spring a leak under enough stress. Maybe they were just worn out?" Ookami proposed, only for Kakashi's eye to strengthen its gaze upon him. For a split-second, he'd thought he may have said too much. After all, he'd been quick, maybe a bit too quick, to reach a conclusion on the waterskins. Luckily for him, Sakura interrupted.

"Is it really that big of a deal sensei? I'm sure we can find another stream somewhere tomorrow."

Kakashi shook his head. "According to the map, the nearest river or lake is about four hours from here, five or six if we're slow which we will be because Naruto's already parched. I can't imagine the two of you will fare much better even if you'd just taken a drink now."

"So, what are we going to do?" Sakura asked, to which Kakashi stood up and reached into his pockets before going over to the large bag of effrayed and digging through it (for a strangely long amount of time)

"I spotted a small trade shop about forty-five minutes back from here. I'll be able to swap some of the effrayed for water if they have it."

"But won't that mean we fail the mission?" Naruto questioned with a raised eyebrow.

"I'll do a trade back for some wild game, maybe a deer or something if we can find it. It might take a little bit but it's still more time-efficient than trying to trudge to the next stream."

"Why not kill the deer and just trade that for the water in the first place?" Sasuke interjected.

"If have no idea if the trade shop actually has water, it's not worth killing a deer over."

Sasuke nodded his head in acknowledgement as the man in front of him strapped the large bag of herbs onto his own back. Kakashi began to trudge outward, sparing no seconds in the process. Very soon, Naruto would get a headache. Soon after his skin would dry and he would begin becoming both incredibly thirsty and incredibly sluggish before morning. He didn't doubt the same fates would be prescribed to both Sasuke and Sakura not that long after.

"I'll be off. See you in an hour or two." He said, already beginning to make his way out of the campsite. This speed was intentional with the other members of the campsite not being able to see the small note he dropped Sasuke. The boy's eyes quickly grazed over its sloppily written ink, "read in a secluded place" plastered onto the paper in roughly drawn letters. Clearly Kakashi had not had much time, using a pen he most likely had on hand. Sasuke quickly stuffed the paper in his pockets, waiting out the time until he could follow the instructions. Around five minutes after Kakashi had departed, he casually stood up.

"I'm gonna go take a piss." He murmured.

"Are you sure? Might need to conserve some of that water for the moment." Ookami said with a laugh, which quickly spread to Naruto and (to a lesser extent) Sakura. Sasuke cracked a smile, though this was more a platitude than anything else. He quickly made his way into the forest that surrounded the area, unfurling the piece of paper as he made sure he was out of sight completely. The wording on the page was as rough and sketch-like as he expected, but there was no mistaking it's intent. Its big bold letters read:

_**Ookami is suspicious. Keep an eye on him. **_

* * *

Kakashi had left around thirty minutes ago, Ookami estimated as he cracked one of his round eyes open a peep. The genin had quickly decided to go to sleep, hoping to conserve as much of their strength as they could in the event that Kakashi couldn't get any water. He assumed they were all asleep. Naruto was, that much was obvious from the loud snoring he was projecting. On the flip side, the other two's lucidity status was up in the air, as he hadn't been able to recognize any concrete sleeping pattern for them.

To check, he stood up slowly, making sure that the other two were non-reactive. Luckily for him, it seemed as if they were. The joy he got from this revelation didn't last long though, another roadblock being added onto Ookami's path just as soon as he'd cleared one. He felt multiple pairs of sly canine eyes digging into the back of his neck, _just_ visible through the thick surrounding forest. Hatake must've been at least a little bit suspicious if he'd felt the need to put his mutts on duty. He couldn't extract the boy's chakra lest the dogs begin to throw a fit, so Ookami was forced to retreat to a spot where he was no longer in the ninkens view.

Luckily, the dogs didn't seem to have a problem with this, probably assuming his disappearance was down to toiletry reasons. It gave him a chance to double back to lower ground. Immediately, he burst out into a coughing fit, flecks of blood being flung out with every deletion of air.

"Fuck." He growled, reaching for his watch.

_**Tick**_.

The hum of the clock's arms only served to imbue further panic in the man. It was getting real close to midnight, and he didn't have as much as a drop of the nine-tailed chakra inside him. No matter, he'd have it all soon enough. It was unfortunate that the host was so young but, hey, it was a dog eat dog world. Actually, considering the black mark that had been stained onto his shoulder, maybe snake eat snake was a better turn of phrase.

His old wrinkly hands dug through the satchel; in search of the sealing tag he'd kept in there. It wasn't written by him of course. The fujinjutsu displayed on it was far beyond his level of comprehension, he only knew how to follow the basic instructions. At that point, even this would be difficult when considering his degraded chakra network. Ookami quickly shoved these thoughts of inadequacy to the back of his mind. If he extracted the nine-tails from the boy and resealed it inside himself, he'd be able to regenerate chakra quicker than his curse mark could destroy it. After that came the issue that, one, he'd just killed a child and would probably become an instant target through any leaf affiliated areas and, two, with the decision to keep the nine-tails inside himself, he was suddenly a very big target for a lot of people. The rest of his life would be one of recluse, but at least it would be one.

Now, onto the problem at hand. The dogs had, from what he'd seen, a key and lock focus on the genin, meaning he'd need to distract them in someway if he were to get to Naruto uninterrupted. His mind worked quickly, gaze scouring over the area to try and find something he could use. That something came in the form of a medium-sized, cream rabbit that was currently stationed to the far side of him. It was a bit smaller than he would've liked, but it'd get the job done all the same.

* * *

With a rabbit corpse in hand, Ookami made his way through the forest depths. He'd circled back around to try and get out of the view of the dogs, only to realize this had been pointless. If a ninja as elite as Kakashi Hatake had signed a summoning contract with them, they most likely had a strong sense of smell. Ironically, this is actually what his plan hinged on. He crouched down in a prickly bush, hopeful that his scent would be masked by it's strong, pine-like aroma. It was as dark as the dead of night usually entailed, so the dogs were barely visible through the small slits of forest-caped moonlight. From what Ookami could see, one was smaller with droopy face. He seemed to be the leader based on his positioning. The others took the form of a massive black one with a spiked collar and a shiftier orange breed, who's slanted eyes were covered by thin sunglasses. Why a dog needed eye ware at all, let alone ones that blocked out the sun, he couldn't figure out.

Steadying his arm, Ookami gave the rabbit corpse a few test swings, taking time to adjust its angling and such, before, with one final throw, he released it. The rabbit went flying threw the air, falling a little bit behind the dog's station. As expected, the two big ones began to flip out chagrining towards the perceived threat (as well as smell of food).

"Hey, you blockheads! Get back on duty!" The little one growled, somehow talking in human tongue. It would've put Ookami off if he wasn't so focused on dashing through the forest. He only had a little bit of time until either the little dog was able to bring the big ones to their senses or they simply devoured the animal completely. It wasn't like it was a long walk to get from the outer forest to the campsite, but he had to be speedy if he wanted to go undetected. Luckily for him, by the time he reached Naruto's sleeping body, he was able to be exactly that.

He crouched down next to the genin, carefully lifting up the boy's shirt to reveal an average-sized black seal circling around his stomach. Ookami was as cautious with his movements as he could be so as to avoid a premature awakening from the boy. At the end of the day, this was the difficult part. Everything he'd worked for hinged on this working. He gently gripped onto the sealing tag he'd retrieved earlier, placing it near Naruto's stomach. Slowly, he started to project his chakra through the paper, just as had been instructed to him years ago. In turn, a magnetic pushback commenced, strands of pure red energy beginning to leak from Naruto's stomach and latch into the paper. It looked like some sort of primitive sea life attempting to traverse onto the paper. Strings of crimson folded over themselves, twisting and prying as their tips stuck to the top of the tag. If only it could go a little bit faster, Ookami thought, but it was no matter. The dogs were still distracted, Kakashi was far away, everything was going according to-

" _**Fire release: fireball jutsu!**_"

Ookami dropped the paper at the sound of Sasuke's voice, head yanking sideways. His eyes became fully illuminated by the mass of flame that was hurtling towards him, the old man only just managing to get a hand on his umbrella in time. Sticking the top of it outwards like a shield, Ookami sent the chakra he'd been pumping into the sealing tag through the umbrellas wood frame. This chakra somehow manifest into a burst of wind massive enough to completely snuff out Sasuke's fireball. What it couldn't snuff out though, was the rain of kicks that the Uchiha boy threw down against the man, who was now desperate to make space. Sasuke unleashed his attacks with a scary amount of sharpness, boots connecting so hard with the umbrella that it threatened to rip through its material altogether.

If a second gust of wind hadn't been exfoliated from the parasol, Sasuke very well may have knocked Ookami out then and there, but unfortunately for him, he was sent sailing backward along with Naruto and Sakura's barley conscious bodies.

"Hey, what the fuck?!" Naruto snarled, before looking down at his stomach to notice that faded red threads that were weeping from it. Then he looked back at Ookami, who was standing towards the forest in a defensive position. The old man's eyes were wild with fury, the battles adrenaline causing mad twitches to occasional sail through them. It didn't take Naruto very long to connect the dots.

" _You scumback fuck!_" He growled, getting to his feet while Sasuke helped Sakura do the same.

"Okay, what's happening right now?" Sakura asked, still so drowsy that she had to rub her eyes.

"The old man's evil and can shoot wind from his umbrella. Now we're going to fight him." Sasuke explained as if he were regurgitating a simple mathematic equitation.

"Wait, hold on- "Sakura said, trying to process the information she'd just been given. The chance was dashed however, by Naruto's current outburst.

"If you wanted the damn fox, you could have just asked for it_!_" He screamed, taking a furious step towards Ookami. The man only sneered in response.

"idiot, you have a tailed beast locked inside you and you don't even understand how it works. If the fox is removed, _you die_."

Naruto's face became flush with surprise, before contorting into one far greater in rage than anything Sakura and Sasuke had seen out of him before.

"So, you were going to kill me?!"

"Damn right I was going to kill you! Wait, let me rephrase that. Damn right _I'm going _to kill you."

Naruto took another step forward; blades of grass being squashed under his sole.

"Naruto, don't." Sasuke said, prompting the Uzumaki boy to clear his head, at least a little bit as he turned to face his friend.

"Why not?"

"Did you see the amount of wind he was putting out before? One step into his range and he blows you off the cliff."

This did make sense, Naruto thought. The edge of the cliff wasn't that far behind them. If Ookami was able to hit them with a decent gust of wind, gravity would do the rest.

"So, what do we do then?" Sakura asked, readying a kunai at her side as a distance measure should Ookami get too close. Sasuke's now sharingan-imbued eyes became lost in thought for a moment before snapping back to the situation at hand.

"Either we stall him until Kakashi gets back or we try and deplete his chakra outright. This might actually be doable, since he can't be that competent if he's using a chakra instrument."

"Chaka instrument?" Naruto asked. Clearly, he wasn't familiar with the term.

"A tool that helps conduct your chakra. If you're using a chakra instrument the way he's using it, chances are his elemental chakra control is just so awful he can't properly mold it on his own. Might be why he wanted the fox."

Naruto and Sakura both nodded, the former a slight bit put-off by hearing Sasuke casually mentioning the nine-tails like that. Nevertheless, he focused his sights back on Ookami who was standing there, waiting for their next move. This was another tip off that the man simply wasn't that much of a combat threat when you took away his umbrella. Yet another big hint came in swift supply, with Ookami going fully bug eyed as he heard the loud barking of dogs getting closer and closer.

"Shit!" He cried, turning his back on Team Seven in favor of the forest. This gave the genin a massive opening that they were eager to exploit. Sasuke's hands cracked through the signs before raising up in an O shape around his mouth. A dispatch of flame fled from his lips, charging towards Ookami, who was too concerned with warding off the oncoming dogs to do anything. Or so they thought. See, Ookami wasn't stupid enough to completely turn his back on the genin. He switched his focus back to them yet again, a smug smile plastered on his face (even despite the rabid hounds that were currently charging towards him.)

"_Fool!_" He cried, sticking his umbrella out in front of the incoming fireball. With a burst of wind and a sudden wrist slide, he redirected the flame onto the ground in front of him. The forest grass caught ablaze, stopping the dogs in their tracks with its heat.

"Crap! Supa try and find another way around. Iroai, go get the boss." Pakkun instructed, falling back as the flames threatened to engulf him as well. The spectacled one set off running after Kakashi, while he and the spiked collard one began running to the side in an attempt to try and beat the flames before they engrossed the whole forest length.

Sasuke mumbled something (probably contain on expletive or five) to himself, before converting his fireball jutsu into a phoenix flower. Shots of flame traveled across the landscape; each one being sloppily broken down into an all-encompassing array of sparks by Ookami. Sasuke took a small breath which acted essentially as a reload "function". The short time he had taken to inhale turned out to be all Ookami needed to formulate a plan, though. Before Sasuke had a chance to lay down his next patch of phoenix flowers, Ookami picked two explosive tags out of his satchel before blasting them over to the edge of the cliff with his wind. They stuck themselves to the ground just behind the trio, Sasuke's eyes widening as he saw them. The lingering sparks that still flickered through the air were all he needed to see to make the connection.

He had to admit, for what Ookami lacked for in fidelity and skill, he more than made up for in cunning. Now, if Sasuke were to shoot more fireballs (the genin's only real long-range offensive option) they were at a risk of collapsing their own terrain should even a single spark hit the tags.

"Damn it. Sakura, can they be deprogrammed?" He asked through gritted teeth.

"Nope, they're flash paper tags." Sakura shot back after reading over their inked text and realizing it held nothing of value. Flash paper tags were different from the normal fujinjutsu based tags in that they were not programmed to do anything. It was their pure material which allowed them to explode, so slicing through its sealing language would do nothing. On the flip-side, this also meant they couldn't implode on themselves without either a flame or a detonator.

"I'm on it." Naruto said, quickly sending two shadow clones outward. The copies ripped the tags up from the ground before throwing them forward at Ookami. Sasuke saw the specifics plan without even needing instructions, immediately blasting the tags with a fireball jutsu. This, of course, caused an explosion to burst through the air, it's residual smoke masking the genins location. Ookami flinched, any control he had of the situation fading with the prominence of the smog. He quickly shot another blast of wind chakra out of the umbrella, but by that point, it was already too late. He may have been able to dispel the smoke, but the genin had been lying in wait for his next attack.

A kunai flew out at him, too low for him to possibly block. At first, it didn't look like it was going to hit anything, but that was because he didn't notice the wire that had been weaved through its hole. The knife shot past the opening in his legs, disappearing from the man's peripheral view before being violently yanked back into his back. It stuck itself in directly upon a patch of the dried white curse mark skin, which already sizzled enough without a knife stabbed into it.

"_**Aaaah!**_" He cried, blood beginning to trickle down from the cut.

"Got him." Sakura said, dropping the wire of the kunai. Naruto cast more shadow clones, about six in total, which charged towards the older man. Ookami saw this, taking aim once more with the aid of his umbrella. However, Naruto had not been simply charging in with no plan to counter attack. Two clones continued to run forward, while the others circled into formation. Three of them latched onto a lone one as they ran, beginning to swing him around until unleashing him at the peak of his momentum. The clone went sailing through the air, with height and speed that would have previously seemed impossible. Ookami's already bulging eyes widened further as he realized that clone that the genin had locked him in check. His range simply didn't have the length required to blast away every clone before at least one of them reached him. He struggled against this reality, blasting away the five on the ground before desperately thrusting his umbrella topside to try and get the drop on the airborne clone.

_**CRACK!**_

It was too late though, the shadowclones fist smashing into his jaw with physical aplomb. Ookami, a fat seventy-year old man, was not good at keeping his balance normally, let alone after being decked in the face. He fell down to the ground, reeling from even the attacks of the shadow clone. Even through his face-clutching hands he was able to blow it away, but any attacks that required any skill were completely off-limits at this point. This wasn't just because of the wack to the head (although it was part of it). As he tried to recover off the ground, the old man exploded into a bloody coughing fit so immense that he could hardly open his eyes.

_Fuck! Chakra's running real low. _

If you were to run an autopsy on Ookami right now, you would find his internal factors in a state not too different from a mutilated corpse with how his chakra coils were degrading. Even when he was youthful and healthy Ookami had never been the best with chakra control, so he was downright amateur while in a state that was a few minutes away from dying outright. He opened his eyes a few seconds after the pain ceased, taking a look over at the genin who were now rushing towards him. He needed to act quickly, or they'd have him bound in no time.

Swiftly taking aim with his umbrella, Ookami aimed his breeze the fire that was crackling behind him, extinguishing it before shooting a smaller shot off onto the forward ground. This propelled him forwards, out of the genins reaches and into the forests grasp. Picking leaves out of his moustache, he rose to his feet, trying to calculate how far he'd managed to push himself. He could still see the dwindling light of the clearing peeping through the trees, so he couldn't have gone too far-flung, but judging from the voices in the distance, he'd managed to escape the genin's line of sight for the moment.

"_Where'd he go?!"_

"_Couldn't have gotten that far. At the speed he was going at, he probably hit a tree and died."_

"_Should we wait until sensei gets back, or just go after him now?"_

Wherever the discussion was headed, it bought him a few extra seconds of time. Ookami was able to maneuver himself out of their possible detection zone. He scaled a nearby tree, blue gown camouflaging his from surprisingly in the gloomy navy glow. His harsh pants were forcibly quelled, despite how exasperated he was. A few seconds afterwards, the three teens emerged into the woodland, obviously not that concerned about his whereabouts.

"Try and find a body. If he's not around the immediate vicinity, he's ran off." Sasuke directed, the other two nodding at his instructions. He knew he hadn't put up that much of a fight, but Ookami couldn't help but be angered at the little brat's solemn nature. After all, they were inches away from loosing this battle and they didn't even know it, so in his mind, the lack of urgency was completely unwarranted. He would show them this _right now_. Steady hands grasped the grip of his umbrella tightly, aiming it upwards at a slow-

"Top right treetop." Sasuke said, red eyes fixating on Ookami. The older man flinched slightly under the sudden gaze, realizing that trying to hide out of the visional range of a boy with a dojutsu may not have been the smartest idea. Sakura whipped to the side on her teammate's instructions, tossing a bit of wire up at the spot mentioned. At first, Ookami thought the children had gone nuclear and stuck an explosive tag onto its length. Luckily for him, they weren't quite that brutal, and the tag itself was just an adhesive. He quickly realized this wasn't lucky at all, with Sakura using the tag and wire as a makeshift harpoon, pulling him off the edge of the tree.

He crashed onto the ground, leaves bursting out underneath his weight. His back felt a sudden surge of pain burst through it, though whether that was the curse mark or just falling off the tree he couldn't figure out.

"_Fuck." _He muttered to himself, as Sakura marched towards him. She'd have dragged him towards her with the still-connected wire, but she doubted it would support his weight. Ookami's still throbbing head looked sideways, in an attempt to see where she was coming from and if he could launch some sort of counter attack. Fate must've been on his side that day because what sat at fingers length was something that could completely turn the tide of battle on its head. An uneven patch of leaves sat over a trip wire, it's material barley visible in the light.

_One of Kakashi's white snake traps. _

Ookami's hand shot out to trigger it. Sasuke, with the aid of the sharingan, was able to see it coming but Sakura, who was actually at risk, did not.

"_Sakura_!" The Uchiha shouted, but he was too late. A sharp snap was heard, its audibility marking the arrival of a large battering ram like branch that feel from the trees. It smashed into Sakura's stomach, hard enough to send her flying through the forest depths. With the force she'd been hit with, it was a safe assumption that she was out of the fight for at least a decent window of time.

"_Bastard!_" Sasuke snarled, rushing forward with heart overruling his mind. No matter how fast his eyes moved, he couldn't reach Ookami before the man had picked his umbrella back up. Another blast of wind chakra left Sasuke to the same fate as the girl before him. He was thrown into the forests inner-reaches, allotting Naruto as the only genin left before Ookami.

"Shit, Sasuke!" Naruto shouted, before shifting his attention to fully focus on the foe before him. Unfortunately for him, it was already too late to do anything. A gust of wind shot full force at Naruto, pushing him down towards the trees like a ball in a sports game. Ookami devilishly smiled as he watched the boy soar backwards…but then he realized he was weaving hand signs. Naruto's fingers frantically locked together, desperate to get through the chakra molding process before time ran out. He slammed his fingers together in one final cross sign, before a massive cloud of smoke erupted behind him. His clones formed a net between the treetops, halting any negative momentum he may have had.

Suddenly, before the elderly man knew it, Naruto was soaring towards him, having been thrown by the wall of clones. A pathetic blast of wind shot out in an attempt to deter him, but Naruto's motion and Ookami's rapidly approaching chakra fatigue rendered this nothing more than a futile gesture. Naruto landed a few centimeters in front of the ground, rolling off the dirt before bursting up into a sharp kick. At first, Ookami thought it was aimed at his face and braced accordingly, but he quickly learned that its effects were far more damaging than even that.

_**SMASH!**_

The boy's foot crashed through his parasol, enough force behind it to shatter parts of the wood frame.

"No way to run away now, huh?" Naruto jeered, kicking the remains of the umbrella out of Ookami's hand. Ookami sat there in silence, completely shocked by how quickly his apparent victory had been flipped on him. He had lost. That thought bounced through his head but it required a constant recollection of the events that had just transpired to really sink in. Naruto had destroyed his umbrella. He couldn't win a physical confrontation with Naruto. He had lost. He had lost and he was going to die.

"I'm taking you back to camp." Naruto said, gripping onto the collar of the man's robe. The fear of his ever-approaching mortality washed over him, sending Ookami into a state of pathetic desperation.

"_No! Please, I'm begging you! I'll die without that chakra!" _

"So will I. You're seventy old man, you've had a good run." Naruto muttered, beginning dragging him along the ground. Pleading humanitarianism after he'd just tried to kill the boy and his friends clearly wasn't a good plan of action. He needed something different, something that would make the boy freeze. Come on Ookami, think think _think __**think**_.

"_Please, I-…. I knew your mother!_"

Naruto stopped. His blue eyes widened, only emphasized by the flush of the moonlight. His previously iron grip on the man's collar was dropped completely, while his stare of contempt was replaced with one of anxious curiosity.

"What?" His tone was low, lower than Ookami had heard it previously. He'd struck gold here.

"Well, I didn't know her personally, but I know _about _her. Kushina Uzumaki, the previous nine-tailed jinchuriki, I know all sorts of things about her!"

Naruto stood so still, it was hard to know whether he was about to slap him or that he'd simply frozen. His eyes were deep, flickering like puddles in the dead of the night.

"Tell me." He said, voice so hoarse Ookami couldn't even hear it.

"What?"

"_Tell me_." He said again, with enough force that Ookami scuttled back against the ground slightly. He quickly recovered however, tempted not to keep the boy waiting lest he eat a punch to the face.

"Kushina Uzumaki was born as a citizen of Uzushio, the former land of whirlpools. She was, uh, of high social status- "He stumbled through his words, Naruto's iron-weighted gaze burrowing down into him. At first glance, it may have looked like he was so intimated, that he couldn't speak straight but what Ookami was actually doing was much more sinister. His hands pocketed through the satchel; Naruto so distracted by his words that the action went unnoticed. Eventually, he gripped onto blade of a kunai knife. It was thin, and kind of blunt but it was all he needed. If he couldn't get the chakra out with a tag, he'd do it the old-fashioned way.

"Uh, she moved to Konoha in-_**Ah!**_" Before Naruto could snap out of his daze, Ookami leapt forwards, brandishing the kunai. He sliced along the boy's stomach, sloppy but still _dangerously effective_. The immediate blood loss Naruto began to go through sent dark circles crawling up the sides of his vision. They didn't stay there though, quickly beginning to completely overtake Naruto's sight and replace his senses with a strong numbness that rung deep into his bones. He couldn't feel much, in fact anything at all. It was almost like he was being forced to sleep in that regard but this sleep happened to be blissfully painful

_Am I…falling?_

* * *

_Let me in._

_Let me in_

_Naruto Uzumaki_

_**Let me in**_

_**Just a little bit**_.

_Let me in_

_A little bit?_

_**Just a little bit. **_

_**You'll die without it. **_

Waves rippled across Naruto's face, a voice burrowing into the innermost-reaches of his brain. It was barley louder than a murmur, but hit him as hard as full-on scream.

"…Okay."

* * *

Silent was the night, as Ookami leered over Naruto's deceased body. He'd never been a big fan of the killing part, especially when it involved weapons and such. He'd done it before obviously, but it was usually through seals and the like. Everything else made him feel a tad bit icky.

The depravity of the fact that Ookami was describing murder in this way was completely lost on him. There was little chance he would ever pick up on it either, since he shuffled over to his foe's corpse so quickly that it almost resembled a hungry child running downstairs to the dinner table. He did a quick examination of the body first of all, making sure that it wasn't a clone or such. It appeared not to be, although that cut seemed shallower than it looked when he'd sliced him. Odd, maybe it was a natural byproduct of the tailed beasts sealed inside you.

Wait, did Naruto's finger just twitch?

Wait, _why was chakra coming out of him? _

_**CRACK!**_

Naruto's hand was latched onto his face before he'd even realized the boy had moved. Sharp, growing nails pressed into the side of his cheek hard enough to draw blood, his eyes widening as he finally managed to get a visual on the boy. Naruto looked very, very different. His eyes, which had previously resembled a sapphire-tinged river now glimmered with the scarlet of a sandstorm. His teeth were sharper, his whiskers were longer and most noticeably, his body was now coated in a layer of thick red chakra. It was only now that Ookami fully realized the boy he just killed had come back to life looking like a demon, a cry of help bubbling up his throat only to be snuffed out by Naruto's hand.

"**What's the matter, gramps? Not liking the new look?" **He hissed. His voice was deeper than before, rippling with an undercurrent of something that was far beyond human. Ookami took a desperate slash at him with the kunai that he was still holding, only to find the knife unable to even get past the chakra that was now orbiting around his skin.

"**I thought you were gonna tell me about my mum?**"

Ookami continued to squirm.

"**You not feeling up to it?**" Naruto asked rhetorically, having no intention of releasing his grip over Ookami's mouth. Instead, he picked the man up by the head like he was little more than a ragdoll before _tossing _him forward into a nearby tree. Suffice to say, the tree fell down.

"**Tell me about my mum**." Naruto said, striding over to Ookami like it was the most casual thing in the world. Obviously, the senior was in no state to even say his own name after being thrown into a tree with enough speed to essentially chop it down. This fact did nothing to stop Naruto from continuing his demands.

"**Come on, you said you would didn't ya? **_**Tell me about my mum!**_" He growled, punching Ookami in the face so hard, it was a surprise he didn't die outright. A few seconds passed, with Naruto giving him a tiny chance to regain his bearings before hitting him again. Then again. Then again, then again and again and again and _again_.

"_**Talk**_."

A hand suddenly became rested upon his shoulder, red chakra swelling up and around it as it pushed down.

"Naruto."

The boy turned back, inflamed red eyes sparkling sinisterly, only to cool down as they rested upon the figure.

"**Kakashi-sensei**?" He said, completely ignoring the beaten-down man in front of him.

"Get off him."

"_**O**_**\- "Naruto** stuttered, the blaze of crimson that had enraptured him settling down. His eyes relaxed back to their normal blue, and his chakra coat faded along with them. The sudden loss of power caused him to stumble back onto his ass, expression softening. "Okay. Sorry."

Kakashi offered him a hand, which Naruto gladly took. As soon as the sensation of cool down faded away though, his facial features turned completely serious.

"Wait! Are Sasuke and Sakura okay?!" He asked, to which he got a speedy answer.

"We're alright Naruto." He heard the Uchihas monotone voice call out, as the two emerged into sight. Sakura had bandages wrapped around her stomach, arm rested over Sasuke's shoulder. A thankful smile graced the Uzumaki's face, though its subtlety meant it wasn't quite as bright as his usual ones. Unfortunately, this show of companionship didn't last for long. Ookami used the absolute last of his strength to _leap_ onto his feet and took off running, in a show that was more pathetic than impressive. Even Kakashi couldn't help but flash his usual "what the hell?" look that was usually saved for comedic situations.

"Where are you even going?" He called out as the man continued to bolt downward through the forest, brushing past leaves at they went. Team Seven tailed him of course, not returning the same speed. Instead, they just walked eventually finding themselves back at the campsite. Ookami had apparently forgotten that this campsite rested on a cliff-like structure because his master plan had apparently been to just continue running in a straight line forever and now that he couldn't, he was done for (even more so than before). Team Seven watched the last specks of hope fade from his eyes as he ran forwards dead on into the same white snake trap Kakashi had set earlier. A rope dropped from the tree, ensnaring Ookami in its clutch and holding him up from the branch by his left leg.

"Fuck. _Fuck. Fuckfuckfuckfuckfuck_." He swore while dangling from the rope in a way that made Sasuke have to bite his lip to avoid laughing. "_Aaaah! __**Fuck.**_"

Team Seven watched the man with pitiful glances, as he ran manic hands through strands of his wily hair. Eventually, he managed to compose himself enough to make discussion but even then, his words were hardly well-adjusted.

"_You fucking leaf pigs! _You don't care about anyone do you? **Do you?!** I'm about to die and you still don't care! You _still don't care!_"

Silence resumed for a little while before the lone reply came from Sakura.

"You tried to kill us first."

This pissed him off enough that he proceeded to have another hair-grabbing fit, gripping hard enough that he risked pulling tufts of it out. Ultimately, Kakashi took a step forward, attempting to sound professional.

"Ookami Hitsuji, as a jonin of Konoha, I declare a threat to the populous and prosperity of the ninja world. You will serve in our custody until you're cleared to be picked up by ANBU."

"_I'm going to fucking die in five minutes!" _Was all he got in the form of a reply. The bluntness of it was enough to make Naruto laugh, even if he didn't really understand the context of what was being said. Ookami did not hold the same humor.

"Oh yeah, laugh it up fox brat. Dumb little _shit_!"

"Hey, shut up. I was beating the crap out of you just before!" Naruto shot back, defensively clenching his fists.

"Oh yeah?! Well you still don't know anything about your long dead Mother, so I'd say that didn't really matter in the end!"

Naruto charged forward. If he'd been working with a clearer head, he wouldn't have. At the very least, he would've been slow enough to do it that Kakashi would've had a chance to grab him before he did anything dumb. Now though, he was so fast that before the others had even had a chance to see him moving, he'd halfway crossed the cliffside.

"_Naruto, no!_" Kakashi screamed, echoed by the rest of Team Seven. Naruto didn't listen though; he was too intent on beating the living daylights out of Ookami again to hear anything. In fact, it was only when the old man took three final explosive tags out of his satchel, that Naruto realized this had been a _dumb _idea.

"Bon voyage demon spawn!" He cried, setting the three tags alight and throwing them as far as he could. Obviously, the explosion wasn't close enough to even hurt Naruto outright but the effects it had were far more deadly than anyone expected. The detonations rippled through the ground, outright _severing _the ground from itself. The cliffside collapsed under the tag's contents, spiraling into a clutter of dirt and rocks that Ookami and Naruto were both victims of.

It was at this moment, surrounded by a falling cliffside and its innards, that Naruto heard a voice wringing in his ear.

_**You really didn't think that one through, did you?**_

* * *

When the Uzumaki awoke, his face was covered in a paste of thick grey dirt. Normally, this would be cause for disgust but it meant one thing to Naruto. He was alive. Not only alive, but completely in one piece if he was indeed seeing the body parts in front of him for what they were.

"_Pah! _Gross." Okay, maybe there was a little room for disgust, he thought, spitting some jettisoned muck onto the ground. As it turned out, the cliffside was not as steep as it appeared. It was really only a few feet worth of drop before you hit the slope, which had still been further nullified as Naruto had been riding on a support of residual mud and rocks. In all honesty, he was feeling pretty alright right about now.

"_Ah, ah, ah._" The same could not be said for Ookami, who was currently attempting to drag himself onwards towards Naruto by rubbing his face against the ground and hoping that was enough to generate momentum. It wasn't obviously, judging from the fact that he'd woken up before Naruto, yet was about two or three meters away from him. Now that Naruto was awake however, he noticed that Ookami may not have been overreacting when he said he was going to die in five minutes.

The same wooden, bleached white skin that had been running up his neck was now crawling up towards his facial features, overtaking the left side of his lip. His arms and legs were obviously beginning to lose the usefulness, limbs shaking like jello whenever he attempted to put them into action. It took a small while of pathetic struggling, but eventually, Ookami stopped moving, looking up at Naruto.

"I give up. You win kid."

"I think I won a few minutes ago, actually. Right around the bit where I slammed you against the tree." Naruto pointed out, a fact that Ookami was nonchalant about.

"Yeah, I don't care."

Silence overtook the air, the only sounds that could be made out being the chirping of the crickets and the sad hum of Ookami's pocket watch. That was until Ookami looked up at Naruto, a slightly sinister look in his eyes.

"Hey, Naruto. You ever learn the whole story of what happened on the night you got that thing sealed in you?"

There was something about the way he said it that made Naruto's blood run cold. Previously, when he'd been talking, it had been full of delusional hope and confidence and that made him seem completely and utterly small-time. Now, he was speaking with a disturbing resignation that made him somehow threating despite the fact that he literally couldn't move.

"I know enough. Fox came in, wrecked shit, The Fourth put him in me."

Ookami laughed.

"So, you don't know anything?"

"There's nothing else too it."

"Oh, there fucking is. Strap yourself in _Mr. Uzumaki, _I'm about to rock your world."

Naruto gulped, as Ookami began to feel more and more unreasonably relaxed in his position.

"Yagura Karatachi, the fourth Mizukage and holder of the three tails, is murdered. Seiya Samina takes back over, blames the leaf and starts a war, but he didn't start a war with just the leaf, no no no, he started a war on the tailed beasts." Naruto's heart told him to stop listening, but his brain told him to just nod along. For once, he chose to listen to the latter.

"See, whoever killed Yagura, killed the three-tails too. Now the mist doesn't have a tailed beast but everyone else does, and they don't like that. Before you know it, the mist has kill squads all over the place, seven swordsmen and shit, butchering the jinchuriki and then getting some fujinjutsu girl to put kill seals on the tailed beast along with them. Kiri got spared because they were an ally but _goddamn _did they rain hell every else. Tailed beasts, divine creatures birthed by the sage of fucking six paths, dropping like flies."

Naruto stayed quiet, his silence prompting Ookami to continue.

"Now the nine-tails got sealed in your mama cause' the whirlpool objected to the mist's inhumane killings of god's creatures. So, what did the mist do to the whirpool? They wiped them the fuck out, with only a few, including mum, escaping to Konoha. Why do you think the Nine-Tails was so pissed the day he ran amuck? His whole family had been wiped out and he'd been sealed inside the belly of a girl right after."

"You're lying." Naruto said, though his shaky voice indicated that he himself was doing just that.

"_I'm telling the truth_, because with that truth comes the big question. How'd that fox get out of your mum's seal on that day? She was found dead in the Hokage tower, the seal having been broken. No one aside from the Foruth entered that room all day, his secretary swore it Something awful suspicious going on there, don't you think?"

No words came from the Uzumaki boys' mouth, but not for lack of trying. The amount of information that had just been dumped on him was simply too great for him to formulate a single question. Ookami laughed harder at this, only for that same laughter to quickly descend into a mad coughing fit. Blood leaked from his teeth, flossing beneath the gaps and into his hand. The same white skin that had taken over half his body began to cover his left eyes as well while his breaths started to become short and desperate. He looked at Naruto with his one good eye, crazed and near-death but still lucid enough to offer one final statement.

"_Beware Naruto Uzumaki. Orochimaru has Konoha in his sights and he will not rest until it's a greatest treasure are his and his alone. Beware the snake sanin. All beings on Kaguya's earth will falter under the delusion of the eye of the moon. Beware the one with the spiral- "_His voice became cracked, drying out further and further before shattering completely. Ookami took one last gulp of air before keeling over and dying.

A few minutes later, Pakkun would arrive, shouting out to anyone that could hear that he found Naruto. The rest of Team Seven would show up only a few seconds after that, a collective wave of relief washing over them as they watched Naruto. He was unable to join them in that sensation, scarcely making conversation the whole night. Even by the time they'd set up a different camp and he'd went to bed; he could only feel his mind replaying the information that had been given to him over and over again.

He'd figured it out. That's why he was always laughing.


	22. Rainy Day Deadlines

"I don't think she's showing up Kakashi-sensei." Naruto idly murmured, raindrops drizzling down upon the brim of his orange vinyl rain poncho. Thunder cracked through the city streets while cold winds blew harshly against the team. Sakura and Sasuke were wearing matching rain ponchos with their respective colors, while Kakashi held up an umbrella that was only big enough for himself and about half of one of the genins heads. The group stood in a clearing that sat in the heart of Konoha's industrialized center, but the sound of the villages chatter was completely drowned out by the howling draft and pitter pattering of the rain.

"She's got a lot on her plate Naruto, she's just a little late." Kakashi said back, attempting to make it seem as if he wasn't also feeling the shivering effects bestowed onto him by the chilling cold winds. Anko had requested to see them all in person to discuss their chunin exams status, as they were now only a week away from the deadline. They were also supposed to take their official team photo, but Kakashi suspected that this wouldn't be the case with the weather they were having. Camera film was notoriously fickle to try and get a clear picture out of, trying to do so in cold conditions with thunder and rain in the background was an impossibility.

"I think she just isn't showing up." Sasuke said, statement immediately being backed up by Sakura.

"Yeah! Apparently, they do all sorts of tests like this in the chunin exam. If she's the coordinator this year, maybe she's just giving us our first taste of it."

"She's not. Anko can be easily distracted at the best of times. I imagine with the responsibility of the chunin exams on her back, her sense of time is probably disjointed." Upon the words leaving his lips, Kakashi immediately realized he'd said too much. He hoped none of the genin would pick up on it which was obviously an absurdist pipe dream judging just from how quickly Sasuke had turned over to him.

"You know a lot about her." He commented. It was quite ingenious bait actually. If his hypothesis wasn't correct, Kakashi would brush the comment off like the non-statement it was but if he was right…

"Well, she's a top jonin. I like to think I know her well." Kakashi's voice rippled with an undercurrent of hysteria that painted out the obvious answer in everyone's minds. It hit Sakura the hardest, her face becoming shocked with widened eyes.

"Oh my god! Did you two use to date?!"

Naruto burst out into laughter while Sasuke bit his lip to keep it from crawling up into a smirk. Kakashi lunged forward to try and shut the rumor down before it could spread any further, only to assist in spelling out the obvious.

"No we didn't Sakura, stop being an idiot." He spat, with a tone and vernacular so far removed from how he usually spoke that it proved the girl right instantly.

"Did she break up with you or did you break up with her?" Sakura asked, parasitically latching onto the man in an attempt to deride any information she could. He paused for a moment, wondering if he should completely give in to her interrogation, only to quickly realize that there was no point fighting it. If he tried to deny, Naruto and Sasuke would have no problem conscientiously ignore his defense if it meant having ammunition to make fun of him with. It was best to just own up to it.

"It was a mutual thing." Kakashi said, to which the girl's attention immediately snapped back to her teammates.

"She broke up with him."

The feeling of suddenly being back in the academy overtook Kakashi's greater judgment for the moment, flustering the usually stoic copy ninja.

"How on earth could you possibly gauge that?"

"It was a bad one too." Sakura commented, fanning the flames of Kakashi's anger.

"You are fourteen years old Sakura; how would you know?"

"You can just tell sometimes." She said back, somehow not realizing that, as a girl who was rocking a 0-0-0 statistic on her relationship record, she had little authority on the matter. Maybe this was for the best though, considering her observations were one-hundred percent accurate.

"Wait, but when we Anko talked to us in class, she was cute. How come she went out with an uggo like Kakashi-sensei?" Naruto asked, genuinely perplexed. Sakura turned to him with the same face a teacher made when explaining something they knew a lot about, complete with the extended finger motions that came with it.

"Well Naruto, maybe she liked him for his personality. Girls don't actually care about looks that much if their partner's nice."

"Also, you've literally never even seen my face, how would you know I'm ugly?" Kakashi added, to which Naruto looked at him with a deadpan frown.

"If you looked nice, you wouldn't have to hide your face would ya?" Naruto pointed out to which Kakashi really had counter-argument. At least, no counter argument that could properly function within Naruto's mind.

"_**Heeeeeeeey!**_" The quartet heard a loud yell bellow from across the street. Their eyes bounced away from each other and locked onto the figure who stood there. She wore a tan overcoat that scrawled down to the back of her knees as well as a dark orange mini-skirt above it. Mesh leggings bled out from underneath the skirts border while her upper body was covered in a dark purple top. From where she was standing, her head was partially covered by the parasol she was wielding, meaning her eyes and nose weren't visible. All that they could see were the edges of her short hair, which was a dee hue of black and purple and her mouth, which was crunching down on a stick of dango. Her deceptively long tongue lapped at the sides of her lips, removing any traces of syrup that may have lingered there.

"Is that her?' Sasuke asked.

"Yes." Kakashi murmured, keeping his gaze straight ahead.

Anko titled the umbrella upwards as she walked, exposing her headband-clad forehead and face. She wore a sharp grin on her face, seemingly not deterred by the awful weather as she made her way over to the group.

"Sorry I'm late, lunch lines were _long _today. I'm Anko, if you don't remember but I'm sure you do. That goes for _all _of you." She mused, eyes locking onto the older man instead of the children she was supposed to be focused on. Kakashi rolled his eyes at the girl in front of him, her grin only intensifying in response. "You have any trouble while waiting?"

Sasuke looked at her with an expressionless gaze.

"We've been waiting in the freezing rain for fifteen minutes, you tell us." He said. Anko's smug smirk turned into a frown for a few seconds before its motions were yet again reversed.

"I will. There are shops in walking distance from here. Why didn't you just go stay in one of those instead of waiting out here idiot?" Her words were more aggressive than you'd expect from a person in her position, especially since she topped them off with a crude insult. However, Sasuke didn't really have a reply. He could've made the argument that they might've missed her had they done that, but at that point, he was getting into a stupid argument with a direct superior. He decided to eat crow for the time being, simply shooting his eyes sideways instead of giving any form of response.

"Bad form Mr. Uchiha, that would've fucked you up if you were being watched under exam rules right now." She said, weirdly changing her tone to be more formal while also saying Sasuke would've gotten "fucked up". She quickly diverted her attention from the boy specifically, to all three of the genin in front of her. "So, Chunin Exams, where are we at?"

Before she could get any solid answer out, Naruto rushed to but in.

"Before we, like, say anything, can we just make it so that anyone who's maybe doesn't want to do the exam is kept anonymous?"

This was an absolute head-smacking moment, even more so when you realized that Sakura was literally about to do that exact same thing out of courtesy. The only difference was, Sakura_ was _intent on taking the exam and Naruto _wasn't_ and couldn't actually defend himself when Anko instantly realized that he was the one keeping Team 7 from taking the exam. Her sharp gaze squared in on him, eyes full of annoyance.

"Why exactly don't you want to take the exam Naruto?"

Naruto was put under immediate pressure, face squirming like he'd just bit into a full mouth's worth of sour candy.

"I didn't say it was me!"

"Well, let me just ask you directly then. Are you going to take the chunin exam?"

"I'm still thinking about it." Naruto mumbled, stuffing his hands in his pockets and focusing his gaze downcast.

"When exactly are you going to stop thinking about it and give me the information I need?" Anko asked, biting her lip in an attempt to curb the frustration that was currently mounting inside her. Naruto looked at her with a curious glance.

"How long until the deadline again?"

"Nine days."

"I'll get back to you in eight."

Anko slapped her hand onto her face in exacerbation. It almost looked like she was going to strike the boy as she clenched her hand, but this was quickly quashed. Her words clearly reverted to a memorized script with the kunoichi slowly lowering her palm down as she did so

"What possible apprehensions do you have about taking the chunin exam?" She asked robotically. This was useless, with the look Naruto gave the question doing it's best to illustrate the fact that whatever he said next would be a complete lie. To be fair, he really didn't need his tell-tale gazes' help in punctuating this considering what he actually said in response.

"I'm actually really worried about the morality rate."

Anko's face became run-down with a complete confusion as to what a "morality rate" was. Kakashi looked down at his student, exposed eye soft in its disappointment.

"Do you mean a _mortality_ rate?" He asked, deadpan in the face of Naruto's idiocy.

"Oh yeah! That's the one." He exclaimed with little regard for the supposed concern he supposedly had over the subject. Anko did not know much about Naruto Uzumaki, but she did know that he had just become the biggest hurdle to her goal of "making her life easier" at this point in time. Maybe she needed to get tricky if she was to get him to take the exams. Just remember interrogation training…

Step one: everyone has a central motivation that drives their actions. Find that and you can easily fill in the blank spots of their equational character.

"Honestly Mr. Uzumaki, if you're still questioning whether you're going to take the exam this late, maybe the life of shinobi just isn't for you." She said, voice the same levels of robotic as before but significantly more focused. Naruto Uzumaki demonstrated ego when he refused to admit that he didn't want to take the exams in the first place. Calling that ego into question looked like the most probable way to get a character-showing response. Anko had to resist smirking as she noticed Naruto's face twist into a scowl.

"It is so! I'm gonna be the greatest Hokage the leaf village had ever seen!" He blurted out. This took her onto step two. Push and prod at the motivation until it morphs into your own goals.

"If you take the chunin exams now, your chances of becoming Hokage sky-rocket by virtue of potentially going up in rank while at a young age."

"Really?"

"Yep, you go from a zero percent chance of becoming Hokage to a zero-point one percent chance." This only caused Naruto's scowl to deepen, to Anko's delight. She hit him with the truth, and the "underestimated" him. The mixture of emotions this must've sent pulsating through his brain would surely through him off balance and cause him to expose his true feelings.

"Are any of the other teams doing the exams?" Naruto asked in panic, his verbal leverage beginning to slip down a ninety degree drop. Before he could further dig himself into a hole though, Kakashi interjected.

"Naruto, that's confidential information that's only to be shared between- "

"Every other team is at least _leaning _on the side of taking them." Anko cut him off, attention laser-focused on Naruto. The boy squirmed around for a few seconds, looking almost like he was having a fit. Clearly, he was having so many contrasting thoughts that he was struggling to contain them all.

"Okay, okay, I'll- "He bit his tongue to pause, dramatic tension beginning to seep through the cold air. Anko nearly licked her lips in anticipation as she waited upon his answer. Even the rest of Team Seven would be lying to themselves if they said that they weren't at least a little bit anxious to see what his answer was. Audible words began to crawl up from the insides of Naruto's throat, edging further and further towards coherency before he finally uttered those words: "_I'll _get back to you in a few days!"

Anko's serpent-like smirk was washed away, an exacerbated frown taking its place as she looked on in frustration. Instead of pushing back against his indecisiveness though, Anko decided to call it a day for now.

"I want an answer soon Mr. Uzumaki." She said plainly, to which Naruto half-heartedly nodded his head, clearly not going to give an answer soon.

"Okay, that should be all for today if you two are both wanting to take the exam." Sasuke and Sakura nodded along with the instructions, giving Anko a chance to look towards their teacher. She clicked her fingers, motioning to him.

" Kakashi, come with me, there's some forms you need to fill out before I can let ya' go."

The copy ninja was somewhat surprised at her directions, briefly taking a glance back at the genin before looking back at her.

"Alright then. You three are dismissed for today. Naruto, your mind should be made up by the next time I see you." He said before following along with the departing woman. This left the three teens on their own in the middle of a rain, the vinyl of their ponchos squeaking as they made movements. There was a short silence between them, the interlude being scored by the sound of the rain chattering onto the ground. Then Naruto spoke.

"Damn, she's _mean_." He groaned, still a bit scared that she was still in earshot.

"She's the main organizer behind one of the Villages most important events. If she wasn't, she wouldn't have been chosen." Sasuke explained.

"But she's still mean though, right?" Naruto asked, getting an instant response.

"Oh yeah, she's a total bitch."

* * *

Hiruzen's slim eyes sat distantly on his face, focused only upon the trails of rain drop that streaked his window. It was dreadful weather, ugly enough to make his normally beautiful view of the village seem dilapidated and droopy. The clouds that masked the sky were a mixed gradient of grey, some light and almost white in color while others were so dark they looked like the nights sky. His view of the village was further blurred by the dispatch of smoke from the end of his pipe. The expulsion clung to the window, muddying the pristine glass before fading away, disappearing as quickly as it had come.

The old man's hand steadily gripped his pen, tracing his signature on what was quite possibly the three hundredth piece of paperwork he'd signed that day. As unbecoming as it was for the Hokage to slack off on his work like this, Hiruzen had realized from even his earliest days on the job that ninety-percent of the paperwork he did was just to give authorization to another piece of paperwork that also only existed to give authorization to another piece of paperwork which also only existed to-. You get the picture. Only the sternest of rule suckers could truly fault him for his laxness.

His boredom was temporarily broken however, as a short knock on the door jilted him back to reality.

"Come in." He murmured, the wood door opening instantly in the wake of it. Through the small gap in the frame, Mao's head popped out, blond hair draping across his thin spectacles.

"Lord Hokage, Advisor Shimura is here to see you." He said, to which Hiruzen had to physically suck in air to avoid groaning. Now, he didn't hate Danzo. He may have conscientiously objected to the man becoming Hokage, leading to the only democratic election in Konoha's history in which Hiruzen had proceeded to label him a "potential unapologetic war-criminal" during a debate, but he didn't _hate _Danzo. It was just that Danzo usually only showed up unannounced when there was big news that consequently would require a big decision. This was all but confirmed as Danzo walked in with a stack of papers snugly tucked under his bandaged arm.

"Hello Hiruzen."

In his old age, Danzo had become almost physically withered (though no less mentally sharp). Due to both war injuries and natural ailments, Danzo's left side, namely his arm and half his head, were heavily bandaged, resembling a corpse in old-timey Suna. His eyes were beady, constantly looking as if he was scheming even though Hiruzen and him both knew that his times for doing that were far behind him.

"Hello Danzo." The Hokage formally said back, once more having to suppress a groan as the other man proceeded to place the stack of papers on his table though this was quickly balanced out by memories of a time much more on-edge. During his first-term as the Hokage, Hiruzen vividly recalled Danzo constantly slipping in extra details onto his paperwork and then "neglecting" to mention it. These were not small, benign budgetary issues either, they were usually serious foreign policy authorizations that would've drastically shifted the direction of the Village had he signed them. He let it slide with minimal reprimands most of the time, mostly out of sympathy more than anything.

See, Danzo had been classified as a prodigy in the political world of Konoha. as outstanding in the usual ninja field work as he was, Danzo's true calling was obviously of the politically aware nature, with him rapidly climbing up the political ladder until ending up as the advisor to Tobirama Senju. It was outrageous at the time, a boy barley old enough to smoke being named the right-hand of one of the most powerful people in the five nations, but that just spoke to how truly bright and strategic he was. The villagers often theorized as to why Tobirama had singled out Danzo for his advisor. An often talked about rumor that Hiruzen overheard at numerous bars was that Danzo had somehow come into possession of photographs of Tobirama having adulterous intercourse with a prostitute.

In reality, Tobirama had seen the same stone-cold attitude, mind for strategy and ruthless political acumen reflected into the boy and had taken him on-board as a protégée. Danzo's name would become more acquainted to the village, ensuring a constant spot in the pool of the selection of future Hokage's as well as serving a continuation of Tobirama's more militaristic political legacy. However, this same militaristic political legacy would arguably lead to the unraveling of the plan and Danzo himself.

There's a lot of details about the Second Shinobi World War that remain unknown to this very day. Hiruzen disliked dwelling upon the past, and so chose notto pursue those facts. All that was known is that while Konoha was technically on the winning side of that war, the complete brutality they showed in their "shadow clone flash bomber" assault of the flanking Kumo forces had serious repercussions. Tobirama was impeached as Hokage by the historically solitary unanimous vote from the higher Konoha council, though he was lucky to get off without a charge of crimes against humanity. Sensing blood in the water, Danzo attempted to instate himself as the rightful Third Hokage but this was blocked by Hiruzen, who was revealed to have been Tobirama's intended successor.

The power of the Hokage was temporarily split before the four members of the higher council, who decided to instate a democratic election between the two for the first time in Konoha's history. Here came the biggest problem for Danzo. While he was one of kind at manipulating and fooling those in power, his political game-playing was also hopelessly transparent to any working-class Konoha citizen (who made up the majority of the electorate). Against even an average no-name jonin, Danzo would've faced push-back. Against the second most charismatic Hokage in history, he had no chance. It didn't help that his ultra-patriotic "for the good of the leaf" tagline fell dead when it was exposed that he was half-Iwa, and that he'd only moved to Konoha in his early teens. Hiruzen still felt a little bit bad about that, and it may have been why he kept Danzo around as a successor. That and to placate the small but vocal following that Danzo had with Senju (more accurately, Tobirama) loyalists.

_**Click!**_

The sound of the door being slammed shut brough Hiruzen back from his recollection, memories of his youth withering with the reality of age. Danzo had made a point to lock the door, so it was clear whatever he had come to discuss was for the Hokage's ears only. To try and provide context to himself, Hiruzen felt his gaze linger down to the documents that had been placed in front of him. This cursory glance showed their contents to be the redistribution of funds and ninja placements to strengthen internal defence.

"Tea, Danzo?" Hirzuen asked, attempting to make it seem as if his curiosity wasn't piqued as he clutched onto the half-full kettle that sat on his desk. Danzo waved him away with one hand, clearly more focused on scouting out the room. His erratic movements spanned over the whole area, his eyes wandering over to the sides of windows in search of any ANBU details that might be guarding the Hokage at the present time. It was around a full minute before he finally turned to Hiruzen with his answer, apparently satisfied that his words were confined to the current room.

"No thank you. I drank earlier."

"Hm. Doesn't seem like it. You're obviously on-edge."

Danzo laughed at his observation, but both its gravely qualities and its shortness in length made it apparent that it was forced.

"Indeed, I am Hiruzen." He said, retrieving another piece of paper from the inside of his robe and passing it to the Hokage. This one was not a form, instead being written in the text-style of a letter. "I received this letter earlier today from Iwa. Two days ago, at nine fifteen pm there was a break-in at Iwa's storage. Over fifteen jonin were killed at the hands of the intruders. Several scrolls were stolen, _including Iwa's six paths scroll_."

Hiruzen's eyes widened. Thunder and rain crackled through the background, their heaviness punctuating the weight of Danzo's words. The Hokage said nothing, prompting Danzo to continue summarizing the letter.

"While hard to make out due to the darkness and their speed, the two intruders were both identified as male. One had fair skin and black hair, while the other had blue skin and navy hair. Both were spotted wearing black cloaks with spots of red on them. The latter used a large, bandaged sword while the former was specifically identified as wielding the sharingan." Danzo lowered the letter after that last part, indicating that this was all that needed to be said. There was a long silence with Hiruzen's eyes barely visible from behind his clasped hands. His gaze was indicative of a person deep in thought, countless variables shifting around in his mind before he finally got enough of a grip on them to speak.

"This lines up with the information Jiraiya gave us."

"Yes, it appears _The Akatsuki_ has made their first move. Shall I add another million ryo to Itachi's bounty?" Danzo asked. There was a clear contrast within his and Hiruzen's voices. While the latter's tone was filled with an obvious concern for the situation, his took a back seat in favor of methodical strategy. Hiruzen didn't pay it much mind. It was just the way Danzo was. He was the only politician in Konoha that actually enjoyed playing the game.

"Don't bother. We could throw all the money in the village at him, and still no sane bounty hunter would take us up on it." He glanced up at Danzo. "Do we have even the faintest idea of their location at this moment?"

"According to smaller village reports, people matching their description were seen passing through the Land of boiling rock. It depends on the data, but their either heading towards or have already entered the fire country border."

"_Fuck._" Hiruzen growled, nearly slamming his hands on the table in anger. He couldn't help but squint down at the papers Danzo had left on his table. Their strangely militaristic demands didn't seem so strange or militaristic anymore. The gears began to twist around inside his head, clinking together and scrabbling to try and make a plan. "Contact Kiri and Kumo immediately."

Danzo shot a questioning look back at Hiruzen.

"Are you sure?"

"Definitely. Make sure they keep their own scrolls on lockdown. According to Jiraya's information, this Akatsuki group has at least four members. Who knows if their all on the move right now?"

"What about our own defense Hiruzen?" Danzo asked. While he tried to hide it, there was clearly a slight tinge of frustration on the end of his tongue. If Hiruzen were to hazard a guess, it was because he had instinctively prioritized other countries safety over the leaf's own. This sounded like an incredibly petty reason to get annoyed at someone, but also absolutely believable when dealing with Danzo Shimura. Hiruzen had never seen a man with so much love for a country that he literally didn't even grow up in.

"Well, our foundations are more centralized than any country except Kumo. I doubt they'll be able to effectively pass into the village even with lightened defenses so the most logical route of action would be to spread ANBU out closer to the border."

Danzo's one eye practically glossed over as a more strategic edge of the conversation appeared. It was like he was going into a trance, spirit and mind far far away from the Leaf Village yet ever so close as well.

"That's true, but we already have a decent number of ANBU helping with the escort of Suna ninja. Some that are incredibly important to that village's defense and stability." He murmured, implication beginning to seep off his tone towards the end of his sentence. Hiruzen nodded along with him. "In that sense, we are in a little bit of conundrum here. Spread our forces out too much and we risk weakening our main defense should they bypass it, but consolidate it all into the village and we become vulnerable to them gaining ground."

Hiruzen sighed, rubbing his fingers through his rough grey hair before recomposing himself.

"We'll need a more detailed plan of operations by the time the day's done. I entrust that duty to you Danzo."

"Consider it done. In the meantime, those forms I've given you are meant to try and consolidate the defenses on the scroll's location. This is probably our safest move at the present moment."

"Right."

Danzo took a few seconds to break out of his daze, before departing towards the door but not without a farewell.

"I'll be back later with our official plan of action. Farwell Hiruzen." He said, slinking out the door. He did a lot of his work from home, saying that it was the most secure place for confidential information to flow through. Ironically, his home in itself was confidential information, with Danzo having it redacted on any official profile that mentioned his personal information.

With the other man departed, Hiruzen finally let out the sigh that had been latched onto him for the last few minutes. Each village had been entrusted a six paths scroll by, of course, the sage of six paths, and this was for good reason. In his older years, Hagoromo had begun to tinker with his rinnegan abilities. His pursuit in the field of genjutsu lead him to creating the "Eye of The Moon". It was immensely powerful, capable of creating a light so powerful that anyone who saw it would become a captive within their own dream reality. If he'd been thinking clearly, he would've let the jutsu become lost to time, incapable of being replicated but he couldn't.

Hagoromo had always been obsessed with passing on his knowledge and innovation, and this time it was for the worst. The eye of the moon was his magnum opus, a jutsu so beautiful and powerful that it could never be matched. He sealed its contents within five different scrolls, which incongruously began to be known as the six-paths scrolls. Each one was durable enough to survive a sky-level drop yet also packed with enough chakra to wipe out a country should its seals be somehow destroyed. Hagoromo had dealed them out to the five nations, making sure that the jutsu could only ever be used in the name of unity. In fear of going against his Otsutsukusist faith, Hiruzen could not directly call this a bad decision. Instead, he would call it an ego-driven, ultra-idealist joke of a decision that had made his life _that _much harder for the long amount of time he'd spent as Hokage.

Maybe it shouldn't have affected him as much as it should've as Hiruzen liked to consider himself a slave to reason. Iwa getting robbed of their scroll meant little in the grand scheme of things. A single one the scrolls was useless by itself, and Iwa's internal defense was notably awful due to their frigid territory system and colonial background. If one nations' scroll was going to be stolen, it was obviously going to be theirs. Still, he couldn't help but let out that sigh he'd been holding in with intensive worry behind it. He looked back up at the raindrops rolling down the window, grimacing as he did so.

_Of all the times_ _for this to happen_…

* * *

The tri-blend of ponchoed genin wandered through the streets, their brightly colored rain-guards being offset by the stormy weather that loomed over them. Sakura couldn't help but have deja-vu, flashing back to the time she had seen the Konoha streetways at early morning for the first time. It wasn't a one-to-one comparison, she'd obviously made her way home in harsh rain at least a few times during her academy years, but she couldn't help but feel strangely calmed by the barrenness of the usually bustling village paths. Their path was mostly illuminated by street lanterns, most of them being dressed with a snugly-fitted straw hat to keep the rain from drenching their material. Sakura almost laughed at this. It looked as if they were people.

"Damn, no one's out today huh?" Naruto commented. His words were intendedly hyperbolic as they had seen a few people on the streets but their appearances were few and far between.

"I guess no one else was dragged out into the rain to see you squirm in front of a jonin." Sasuke shot back, earning a glare from Naruto.

"I was _not_ squirming. I was just being a reasonable, intelligent person." Naruto commented back, breaking out some "big" words to try and accentuate his point.

"How, by being a big baby?" Sakura asked, having become somewhat tired of her friends' indecisiveness as well. Naruto had no reply, simply sticking his tongue out at her (though quickly retracting it back in when he remembered it was fucking cold). The light of an upcoming store shifted all three's attention towards it, Naruto especially.

"Hey, Sasuke, have you got lemon Vibe at your place?" He asked. Vibe was a brand of soda that specialized in acidic and citrus fruit flavors. The census-agreed hierarchy from the village's youth was that lemon was amazing, lime was okay and orange and grape were vile.

"I bought one of those big packs a little while ago. I should still have a few."

"Oh, are you staying at his tonight?" Sakura asked.

"Yeah." Was all Naruto said in reply. Usually, when she found out Naruto and Sasuke were doing something, the Uzumaki would ask if she wanted to come too despite knowing that her answer was most likely no. He made a conscious decision not to ask this time, though Sakura cared little. She'd already disregarded her mother's rules to hang out with them once this week and had gotten off lightly. To abuse this luck would be madness.

"No girls allowed at the Uchiha compound huh?" She joked, to which Naruto turned to her with a grin.

"Yeah. Don't ya know all girls have lice? You'll probably spread them to us." He joked, recalling the classic schoolyard rumor that made the rounds in the academy when he was young. Sasuke let out a small laugh, whereas Sakura's eyes traumatically swelled up.

"I actually did have lice."

In contrast to her slow low tone, Naruto let out a loud laugh, eyes bulging with remembrance.

"Oh shit, I remember that!"

Sakura had contracted lice in the third grade, about the same time that the stigma of lice being worse than death had become incredibly prominent in the academy. Funnily enough, it may have been one of the bigger reasons that Sakura had been nice to Naruto, even back when they were first chosen on the teams. She was one of the only people who had actually had to endure a slot on the social totem pole that was lower than his, even if her time in that slot only lasted a couple of months.

"People called me "lice girl" for a full two months."

"Only two months? With how lice crazy the academy was supposed to be at that time, I'd have thought it stuck with you longer." Sasuke commented. He had taken a leave of absence during this period, for obvious reasons, so he was not queued into the specifics of the Konoha academy canon. His interest came from second-hand stories he'd heard from Naruto and other classmates.

"Shino tried to buy them off of me for 700 ryo, so everyone ended up making fun of him instead." Sakura recalled. In the end, this had actually been what ended the lice obsession. While various targets had been on the receiving end of the stick, Shino had served as a brick wall of bullying. He was too socially stilted to really comprehend that people were teasing him, and if he by some miracle did, he didn't care much anyways since his only friends were Kiba (who was also a peasant in the social monarchy) and his bugs.

"The academy was so fucking stupid." Naruto said, half groaning and half laughing. Sakura joined in on the humor, laughing to herself.

"Yeah, it totally was."

* * *

The humor continued to linger in the air right until Naruto and Sasuke made their way into the Uchiha compound. The pair quickly ran up to Sasuke's room, wherein he drapped his blinds down over any window and locking any entrance to their room. His normally pristine living conditions had been over with stacks of thickly-spined book, tuffs of paper and broken pencil leds. The Uchiha compound was not particularly big and Sasuke had not seen an uninvited guest roaming the grounds since a little bit after the massacre. However, with the things he and Naruto had to discuss, he wasn't taking any chances. With final peek from beneath his blinds, he turned back towards Naruto.

"You find anything?" The Uzumakia asked, slightly on-edge. Sasuke nodded, reaching towards a stack of books and pulling one out. In engraved silver letters it read: _Notable Konoha Personal Volume 17 (Updated). _

"I did. Firstly, that Orochimaru guy he mentioned…" Sasuke flipped the pages, skipping the books contents to a green bookmark he'd placed in there. There were numerous others stuck in the book, clearly indicating that Sasuke had found more information. Upon finding the place he wanted, he flipped the book around to show Naruto the illustration. Various detailed illustrations lay on the page, but the one Sasuke was clearly indicating was of a man with pale skin. _Very _pale skin.

"_Woah_, he's white as fuck." Naruto murmured, nerves temporarily subsiding due to the man's clown-like features.

"Stay on topic Naruto."

His face immediately stiffened back up. "Right."

"It say's he's a Konoha shinobi here, part of a group known as the "there sannin" so what Ookami said…wait, what did he say again?" Sasuke asked, needing a reviser.

"He said something like "_Orochimaru has Konoha in his sights and will not rest until he's got its treasure. Beware the snake sannin_"

Naruto had come to Sasuke a few days after they'd got back to Konoha with the information he' got from Ookami. The Uchiha boy had been quick to swear him to secrecy, making sure that it was known that Kakashi and Sakura couldn't know about this information under any circumstance. In the meanwhile, both had been scouring the villiage for any information related to Orochimaru, The Tailed Beasts or "The Eye of The Moon". Well, Sasuke had at least, due to having a generally untainted Uchiha library at his disposal. Naruto did not have the same luck. He had at first tried looking through local libraries but not only did they not have any info, but Sasuke, upon digging deeper, realized that Naruto should definitely not have been asking no-name librarians about these topics. This went double went you considered his jinchuriki status. In the end, Naruto had been relegated to simply waiting for Sasuke to finish his research. He had tried playing some of Minato's records (the musical kind), hoping to find some confidential information stored within them, but this was a blank. Then he tried to play them backwards like they did in mystery manga, and he ended up breaking six of them.

Sasuke's hands clasped together in thought, trying to decipher what "Konoha's greatest treasure" entailed. A few seconds past, but he quickly realized he lacked any context into who Orochimaru was and "Konoha's greatest treasure" was an incredibly contextual topic. As far as he knew, Orochimaru was currently a ninja of Konoha. This obviously wasn't true, judging from the fact that he had partners/allies/whatever saying he wanted to fuck over the village but it did serve to illustrate to him that whatever he was trying to find out was a dead lead with the information he had at his disposal.

"We should put a plug in this for now. I've found more important stuff anyway." Sasuke commented to himself, once again reaching into the stack of books. After a few seconds, his hands emerged gripping two books that were filled to the brim with bookmarks. Blue craft tape had been laid over the front cover as to indicate its status as a high-interest item for the two. Before he revealed any information from it however, Sasuke turned to Naruto with the most dead-set serious look he'd ever given.

"Naruto, you have to _promise_ me that you won't tell anyone about this."

"Yeah, okay." He said back, not really grasping the weight of the Uchiha's words.

"No, seriously. Not Kakashi, not Sakura, not Iruka, not even Hiruzen. Whatever Ookami told you that night was stuff genin like us were not supposed to know so we can't let _anyone else_ know that _we_ know."

Naruto took a pause, losing the lackadaisical quality from his face. He stared deadpan for a second before both his features and voice became more solemn.

"Okay, I promise."

"Good." Sasuke mutterd, before standing up from his pile of books and walking over to the bed. He dropped down, fishing a hand _into _a hole that had been cut out in his mattress before he pulled out a large folded slab of paper (as well as a lot of residual fluff). This was quickly placed down in front of Naruto and unfurled, exposing a neatly drawn five circle venn diagram. Sasuke quickly snatched up the tape-covered books he'd grabbed before, placing them down next to the map and flicking through there pages. In the meanwhile, Naruto began analyzing the data that had been presented to him. Each circle represented one of the Five Nations, with Sasuke having tried to find a pattern between which Jinchuriki had been stationed where. Unfortunately, it was pretty clear that he only had the faintest idea on the most of them even were, with the only names he had actually written up being "Kushina Uzumkai", "Yagura" and "Yugito Nii". The rest were simply labeled with titles like "misc. Mist Jinchuriki" and "misc. Iwa Jinchuriki", little in the way of actual information other than the fact that they might have existed.

Sasuke marked his intended page with a sharp tap of his finger, settling on a drawn picture of a black-haired Kiri Woman. The name under her illustration read "Nami Kokai"

"Here."

"Who's that?" Naruto asked, not understanding what Sasuke was trying to convey.

"He mentioned a "fujinjutsu girl" right? This has to be her; Kiri doesn't have any other women on record who specialized in fujinjutsu and aided in the war."

"Right." The Uzumaki's boys gaze darkened as he looked down. "How'd she do it though? Killing a tailed beast, I mean. We couldn't even properly kill the Nine-Tails when he attacked us, why could they?"

Sasuke began absent-mindedly biting at his thumb due to thought, eyes spacing outward in search of an answer. They came back empty

"I have no idea."

The pair stayed silent for a little bit, before the unsettling gravity of their discussion forced one to speak up.

"Well, what about what you said before. About the tailed beasts being made of chakra. Maybe they had a seal or something that took away all the chakra in AN AREA?" He spitballed, using information Sasuke had discovered on the tailed beast a few days earlier.

"Maybe, but if they had the ability to do why didn't they use it against the Leaf during any of our wars?"

"Maybe they did and we just didn't hear about it?"

"Don't be silly. If they had the chakra draining technology potent enough to eradicate something like a tailed beast, we'd be living in a massive Kiri sect right now." Sasuke explained, causing a slight pout to form on Naruto's face. "The real question is how they even managed to get past village borders in the first place. Like, the Jinchuriki in the general water country are self-explanatory and Iwa was colonial for so long that they probably didn't have any real defense against imperialist war tactics but if we give them both two tailed beasts each, counting Yagura, as well as factoring in the two that were apparently spared in Kumo, there's still three jinchuriki they most likely couldn't have reached, let alone killed."

Naruto nodded along with him, though he found it kind of hard to follow. Honestly, with the amount of thought Sasuke had clearly put into it, anyone would. Instead of trying to deride further information however, Naruto's focus turned to the diagram paper he'd drawn up. Kushina's name had been placed in-between the leaf and the mist (presumably because she'd fled from one to the other) while "Yugito" sat solely in the leaf.

"Hey, who's that?" Naruto said, jotting at her nameplate. This at first got no response from Sasuke, who began shuffling through his books before quickly pulling out yet another Konoha registry. He flicked to the paper tag, scanning its contents before showing Naruto yet another page.

"There." He tapped his finger against a poorly-printed on photo of a girl with short-blond hair. A long biography ran down underneath this frame, text small enough that Naruto immediately felt tired upon seeing it. Luckily, Sasuke was there to summarize.

"Her name's Yugito Nii. She's half Kiri and Half Konoha, originally born in the former but immigrated over here when she was six years old." He narrated quickly, scraping his finger down the memoire, waiting until he reached the information he found the most interesting. "She, at the time this book was written, was the jinchuriki of the Two-Tails."

Sasuke looked up from the book, quick to get his ideas out.

"Naruto, think hard, did Lord Third _ever_, even off-handedly, tell you about her? Or even that there was another jinchuriki in the village?"

Naruto paused, crossing his arms as his mind sorted through his memories, combing over any remembered word Hiruzen said to him. This search brought back nothing of substance.

"Nope. I woulda' remembered if he did." Naruto said.

"Okay, so she's most likely dead. None of the later registries I've got have her listed as an active shinobi and no local library I've seen has a registry that goes further back then two or three years."

"You reckon Kiri got her or what?" Naruto asked, getting an answer back instantaneously.

"Nope. No way an army-force large enough to kill a tailed beast just casually crossed the border without it being recorded as an event on par with the Nine-Tails attack. There's no way they killed her unless she was outside the border, which she wouldn't be because why would you allow your jinchuriki to do that when there's an attempted culling going on, but then maybe she was killed first, but then why would you attack Konoha's first, when you could've taken out the ones in your own sects but then-" Sasuke's words became too harsh and quick in their delivery, questions overlapping each other like a military battle between too sides, only his brain was controlling each one. He attempted to regain his bearings and try make sense of the information available to him, but it was quickly rendered naught.

"Look, we can try and make sense of what we have, but we don't have enough info, we're just genin, there's not much we can do."

"Yeah, I know." Naruto agreed. For a brief second, he'd thought Sasuke was going to be able to successfully click it into place, but had quickly realized along with his friend that the gaps in their research were so insurmountable that no amount of perfectly thought out hypotheses using said research would bring them to anything resembling a conclusion. But maybe they didn't need too…

"Hey, I could ask old man Third about this. Maybe he can tell us who that Yugito girl is." Naruto said, attempting to contribute. Sasuke's eyes widened in panic.

"_**No**_! Naruto, do you not remember what we said literally ten minutes ago?! You can't tell _anyone_ about this, especially someone like him. He's probably in on it!"

"What?! No fucking way Lord Third's a schemer like those mist guys!" Naruto shot back, misguidedly attempting to deflect from Sasuke's completely sound line of thought.

"Oh yeah? Tell me then, how come my privately owned library was the only place we could get any tangible information on a majority of the details?"

"Maybe we've got really shit librarians?" He quickly answered, only to completely falter as he heard the stupidity of his own words club him over the head.

"At best he's covering it up to keep the information out of the hands of the general public, at worst, there's something he wants hidden on purpose. Either way Naruto, you can't bring this to him or anyone unless you really want to play treason roulette." Sasuke's tone was icy, freezing the other boys' words for a few seconds before they managed to thaw out of his lips.

"Not even Kakashi-sensei?" He asked, practically whispering.

"Not even him. He fought against the mist; he could know stuff too."

"Fuck off with that bullshit! No way he knows anything, he would've told us!" Naruto's anger was spurned by his own defensiveness, immediately firing back when he sensed Kakashi's morality being called into question. Sasuke couldn't help but waver under this aggressiveness, waving his suspicions for the moment.

"You're right, you're right. It doesn't change the fact that you need to keep this information between us two okay? For now, anyway."

The anger faded from Naruto, a more frightful face overtaking his expression. He nodded his head, silent for the moment. The two didn't speak for a little bit after that, even after Naruto stood up to go do something else around the compound. Existential dread began to seep into them. It was strange how the scope of such a massive conspiracy could somehow make them feel like the walls were starting to close in.

* * *

Kakashi idly fiddled with his pen lid while Anko filed the forms he'd just filled out. They were called character essays, which Kakashi never liked. The word "essays" greatly overstated their depth. In that sense they were closer to "character multiple choice questions". Fill-in bubbles for who his students were and how they'd react in certain situations. Questions loaded with enough complexity that he could've written a novella on them, being distilled into a single flick of his brush. More than that, Anko's office was cramped, messy and boring and the smell of old wood chips being incredibly prevalent in the air. He chose to believe this is what was causing him to feel awkward and not the event of having to share an extremely enclosed space with her for the first time since a messy break up. Well, it wasn't _that _messy…

* * *

"_What the fuck does "switched off" even mean?"_

"_You know what the fuck it means, Kakashi. You're supposed to be some smart ultra-prodigy aren't you, I'm not gonna buy that shit!" _

"_Oh yeah. Well, I'm sorry I'm not as "switched on" as Orochimaru. He's always switched on, the fucking pervert."_

"_Shut up, shut up, __**shut up!**__ You always bring him up and you know how much I hate it!" _

"_You do the exact same fucking thing you dense __**bitch**__!" _

"_**Because Obito died years ago Kakashi, why the fuck can't you get over it?!**_"

* * *

Okay, it was messy. Kakashi's boredom was speaking louder than his logic though, which is what caused his lips to move.

"How are the chunin exams treating you?"

Anko looked up at him, obviously surprised by the fact that he was (non-passively aggressively) speaking to her but trying not to show it. Then she spoke back, face becoming suddenly animated. She'd been in blank-faced business mode for a majority of her time spent with him, but suddenly, she became comically exasperated.

"_Ahhh_! It's giving me grief! Shikaku's kid is doing my head in, saying he doesn't want to do it because it'll be "a drag". Like, what the fuck does that even mean?" Kakashi chuckled as she threw herself onto her desk, thoughts that she'd assumed would have to go unsaid spilling out of her mouth.

"Well, like father like son."

"Yeah I know but still. Honestly, Asuma's whole team is a fucking mess. Inoichi's and Shikaku's brats go back and forth and back and forth. Nearly kept me there the whole goddamn day." She groaned, thrusting her body back against her chair. Upon hearing this dissection of the other teams, Kakashi tried his luck at excavating information more _pertinent _to his interests.

"What about Guy's team?"

Anko may have been carrying on like a child, but her shinobi instincts were not worn down in the slightest. She looked back up at him with a sly smile.

"Nice try. I'm not gonna just feed you info on the other teams because I like you." She sneered, the last part being delivered with a dozen or so layers of sarcasm.

"Drat. What's the point of having an incredibly tumoltiuos and rough relationship with the Chunin Exams coordinator then?" Kakashi joked back, successfully managing to get a laugh out of Anko. "I do have to ask why you accepted the position though. Seems like a lot of work that you could've just passed onto someone else."

Her laughter subsided in the wake of his question. In fact, it wasn't just the laughter, it was her humorous nature in general that faded. In its place was a self-conscious frown, that she clearly didn't want to display yet displayed anyway.

"I actually asked for his consideration and…he gave it to me."

"Seems out of character for you."

"You'd think so." The benign phrase dripped out of her lips with a surprising amount of venom. Kakashi chose not to pursue this in fear that he would awaken the same Anko that he'd spent many late nights/early mornings screaming at and being screamed at by. She shrugged her shoulders, pulling her jacket further up on her neck. "I didn't really want to do it, but…"

She looked down at the ground as if she were talking to herself and not Kakashi. Her eyes had shifted their usual spunky energy to a more somber mood. It wasn't like she was going to cry, in fact, she barley looked upset, but it was a stark contrast to the high-energy and cunning she usually radiated. To most ninja's that knew her, this would be uncharted territory and would put them off somewhat. It was familiar to Kakashi, but the end result was the same.

"Look, maybe if I do really well with this thing…_maybe _people will stop seeing me as his student and just start seeing _me_ as _me_, ya know?"

Kakashi nodded, but didn't say anything. The silence probably whiplashed Anko harder than any response could've, because almost immediately in the wake of her comments, she snapped back to a smug (if slightly embarrassed) smirk.

"Ah! I should be good with the forms from here, you're free to leave if you want." She explained, to which Kakashi began standing up. As he did so, he felt something bubble up at his throat, desperate to spill out of his lips before he left.

"W- "

He spoke only the first sound but it was enough to catch her attention. The intended phrase was "_Wanna go get drinks sometime?_" There was no intended romance behind it and if there was, Kakashi didn't consciously intend it. No, he just wanted to go out drinking and Anko and Guy were the only people he knew well around Konoha, and god knows the latter wasn't going to voluntarily consume alcohol. It'd been a long while since he'd gone drinking. Well, drinking with other people at least. He drunk by himself a lot. The words crawled at his mask, trying to escape out into the world and bring their own conception.

"Was nice seeing you." Was all he said.

Anko half-smiled back. "It was nice seeing you too."

He left a second later, and in a strange way, he couldn't help but feel like the cold was mocking him.

* * *

The Uchiha compound remained incredibly quiet in the wake of Naruto and Sasuke's discussion. The only sound that had been really audible was the stirring of the rain and thunder that would crackle through the rooms. The lack of discussion wasn't out of malice but more so out of neither of them wanting to speak with the weight of knowledge burrowing down upon their minds. This was until Naruto spoke up late in the day.

"Hey, Sasuke. You want to go get some ramen?"

The other boy looked up with a contorted expression. "Fuck no. Not in this weather."

"Come on, rain ramen's good. Not as good as sun ramen but still…"

"Can't you just get me some takeout and bring it back here?" Sasuke responded, obviously too ensnared by the vice of the fire-place to justify the journey.

"Yeah! Good idea." Naruto grabbed his rain poncho from its discarded position on the floor, putting it on over his jacket. "What do you want?"

Sasuke made the mistake of indulging the question as Naruto already knew the answer and spoke simultaneously along with him.

"**Barbeque chicken with extra chives and thin broth**." They said in chorus, Naruto bursting into a chuckle while Sasuke's face screwed up.

"You're predictable dude."

Naruto's good spirits did not extend to even five minutes after he had departed from the house. The wind howled down the streets, almost strong enough to put him off-balance while cold ate at his fingers. He'd realized from the basic landscape-traversal training Kakashi had taught him that he was likely to catch frostbite should he keep his hands out of his pockets, but even in the confines of the vinyl, he could practically feel them turning red. He grumbled invectives to himself, keeping his head down to try and keep the wind and rain from touching it. It was for this reason that he didn't see the person he walked into. Naruto only needed to feel the presence of another human before he instinctively jumped backwards.

"Shit, sorry." He murmured, before his eyes widened as he realized who he'd bumped into. Flak jacket, brown hair and a scar across his nose. The man standing before him was Iruka Umino.

"Naruto Uzumaki, what the hell are you doing walking around in this weather?"

* * *

The pair walked through the puddle-laden streets as they embarked towards Ichiraku. Iruka had agreed to escort Naruto to and from the establishment to make sure he didn't get swept up by the wind and killed. If it was anyone else, he would've simply ordered them to go home, but he knew that Naruto would just wait until he got out of eyesight and then circle back. To try and deny him of a goal was a complete effort in futility.

"So, you're staying at Sasuke's? You two friends now?"

"Uh, yeah, like best friends. We hang out all the time." Naruto explained matter-o-factly. If he was being truly honest, a bit of that "matter-o-fact" attitude did come from the fact that Iruka had been the sole reason Naruto had even managed to pass in the first place, and he felt a little bit guilty for not having reconnected with him until this moment.

"Really? Never pegged you two as being friendship compatible."

"Your compatibility judgment must be pretty shit then huh?" He replied, making Iruka laugh (though he had to fight back the instinctive urge to scold him for uttering a swear word).

"Are you doing alright in your training?" He asked, expecting a grandiose response from the "future fifth Hokage". Instead, he got a significantly more nuanced response, it's subtlety serving to be, in a way, functionally identical to the strangeness of Naruto's usual arrogance.

"Yeah! Well, I think I am. I've been training really _really _hard even after Kakashi-sensei dismisses us. But not too hard, obviously, because I get sore and then I can't train as hard the next day so it's actually worse overall. That's what he says."

"What have you been practicing?"

"Water-walking and taijutsu."

"Ah, must be rough." Iruka said, flinching as traces of his own memories of that time flashed through his head.

"My chakra control is so shit dude." Naruto groaned, somehow still grinning his same sunny grin. "Kakashi-sensei say's I've gotten tons better though, and that's only in a few weeks!"

Iruka paused slightly, attempting to mask the look of bafflement that he wanted to direct at Naruto. While the boy had always been a hard worker when it came to training, he also overstated that work a lot of the time. Now, while his ego was seemingly still far greater than your average genin, he definitely had more of a grip on reasonable human limitations.

_He's more self-aware, that's for sure_. Iruka thought. A few seconds past with the chunin attempting to come up with a conversation topic, before the thought popped into his mind.

"Hey! How about the chunin exams, are you taking those?"

Once again, he asked a question and once more the answer was not what he expected.

"I'm thinkin' about it, but I don't know…" Naruto said, eyes shooting down towards the ground.

"Really? When's the deadline for your entry?"

"It's like a week or something."

Iruka was strangely taken aback from the absence of bravado in Naruto's voice. Soon enough though, his teacher side took over and he began to speak once more.

"That's strange, I really thought you'd be the first one to want to declare your participation."

"Why's everyone keep telling me that? Sasuke and Sakura say that too." Naruto asked, slightly frustrated. Clearly this query had been on his mind for a little while. Unlike his teammates, Iruka was more than willing to give an answer.

"Well, for all that Hokage talk you used to throw around, it seems like you'd want to take the thing that would get you closer to it as soon as you could."

Naruto pondered his response for a short while before beginning to talk again.

"Yeah, I guess, but don't people watch the Chunin Exams and stuff?"

"For some parts yeah."

"Well…what if I'm no good? What if I suck, or I make a really big mistake and they laugh at me?"

The two had stopped moving by this point, not even realizing it. The rain made Naruto's voice sound even more whispery than it already was. It echoed through the village, serving as a tarp for the boy's insecurities. No one was going to hear him; he was stuck in his own little part of Konoha with Iruka. Speaking of which, the chunin dropped down onto his knees to reach Naruto's general height. His eyes were stern almost to the point where Naruto thought he was about to be told off for something.

"Fuck 'em Naruto. Fuck em'. If you make a mistake, you own it. Don't bother listening to what some jackass who flunked the genin exam telling you you won't make it, because if you do, you really won't make it. If you want to take the chunin exam, take it. If you don't, don't but base it on what _you _want to do. Yeah, maybe you'll get punched down a notch but that's life. You've gotta learn how to take the hits sometimes because those hits won't matter if you've got the will to get back up after them. I know you've got it in you Naruto, get out there and show all those doubting pricks why they're wrong."

A twinkle started flashing in Naruto's eye, his self-conscious smile folding into a foxy grin. While the nuance remained, Iruka couldn't help but see flashes of the more braggadocios Naruto glimmering through his expression.

"Hey, I'll think about it." Was all he said.

* * *

"Haha, now you guy's cant make fun of me anymore for not taking it!" Naruto exclaimed.

"It still took you ten years to just say yes or no though." Sasuke shot back.

"Hey, I'm just glad it wasn't eleven." Sakura chimed in, the pair of ninja ganging up on Naruto who's confidence had immediately wilted in the face of his friends teasing.

"You three, settle." Kakashi ordered, as the cameraman took his place. Team Seven had officially entered into the chunin exams and as a result, needed their picture taken for I.D purposes. The backdrop was simple, being one of the training forests stationed around Konoha. The Photographer himself had been a lazy looking man, who had obviously spent the whole day taking pictures of the genin teams and was understandably fatigued.

"I'm going to take your official team picture on the count of three. An envelope containing various different sized photos of this picture will be mailed to your address in the coming days. If it does not show up by next week, check any address that may have been linked to your I.D in the past. Further matters will be brought up with the Konoha hall of records." He droned monotonously, before completely obscuring himself behind the lense of the camera. "Okay, you should now get into position."

They did as instructed, Kakashi heading up the back behind Naruto and Sasuke while Sakura practically leapt in front of the two, holding out duel peace signs in her hands.

"_3…_"

Sasuke tilted his gaze towards Naruto.

"You've got spit on your chin."

"_2…"_

Naruto raised a finger up to wipe the saliva off, only to find his chin completely dry. A playful grin broke out on his face.

"_1_…"

"Shut up asshole!"

Sakura snorted in laughter, while a chortling Naruto nudged his elbow at his friend. Sasuke bit down on his lip to keep the laugh from coming out, successfully managing to hold it off in favor of a smirk. Kakashi looked down at the trio like they were the stupidest people he'd ever met. Unfortunately (or fortunately) all of this was captured with a harsh, solitary…

_**SNAP!**_

It was a few days later that Naruto got his pictures. They were funny looking, the strange dysfunctions of Team Seven on full display, but he still loved it anyway. He broke out the same binding book with the leather cover that housed the pictures of Minato and Kushina, scrolling through it until he found a blank page. For the first time since he was born, another picture became added to its contents. It's cover read the same thing it always had though. "Family" written in bright gold letters.

_Chunin Exams, here I come!_


	23. Reintroductions: The Chunin Exams Begin!

The large gates of the exam building towered over the three genin, only serving to further expand the pits in their stomach. They were meant to be on station for entry at 8:00, but suffice to say, the trio had all been a little bit too fixated on getting there on time and were stuck in front of the gate at the ripe hour of 7:20 in the morning. The sky was bleakly grey, the natural gradient that came out just after the nights had faded but before the sun rose. The gate itself was incredibly tall with Naruto estimating that it would take him around fifteen shadow clones for him to scale himself over the top of its brass metal perimeter.

"Yo, Sasuke, blow it down with a fireball." He idly murmured.

"Great idea, let me do that and then get us banned from ever taking the exam again." Sasuke shot back, the butterflies swirling around his stomach making him a little bit more on-edge than usual.

"Well how do we get in then dumbass?"

"Wait for someone who's working on it to let us in?"

"How do we know this isn't just the first test in the exams? Apparently, they do this stuff all the time to try and get ya to slip up and fail." Sakura explained, recalling books she'd read about the exams. Naruto turned to her with a surprised look.

"Whaddya mean?" He asked, prompting her to continue.

"So, like, maybe this is a test where if you can't get over the gate in time, then you fail. Their supposed to do it all the time with even small stuff like giving out your name." She elucidated, Naruto's eyes widening.

"Woah. Sasuke, you definitely have to blow it down with a fireball now."

"One, that's only a theory, I'm not going to expend myself to test it and, two, I really doubt a fireball would be able to break it down in the first place."

"Then use ten or something." Naruto replied like it was the easiest thing in the world.

"Did you not just hear me say literally less than a second ago that I didn't want to exert myself?"

"_Hey._" A voice echoed from the reaches of the building, snapping the genins attention to it for the moment. A man, presumably a jonin judging from his flak jacket (though he could've been a chunin), emerged into the clearing. He wore a bandana above his headband as well as carrying a senbon in his mouth like you would a toothpick. He slowly made his way over to the trio, his newfound closeness revealing that he was carrying a pen and a binder of paper along with him.

"Are you three here for the chunin exams?"

The trio nodded, encouraging him to speak further.

"I'm Genma Shiranui, a jonin advisor on the exams. I'll sign you in." He flicked through his pages, before realizing he needed additional information. "Can I get one of your names?"

"N- "Naruto was eager to speak, but silenced by Sasuke elbowing him in the stomach. This attack was meant to punctuate what Sakura had said earlier, keeping a possible fail from escaping Naruto's lips.

"_Their supposed to do it all the time with even small stuff like giving out your name"_

Genma seemingly noticed the fact that there were three genin responding to "What's your name" as if he'd just asked them what the meaning of life was. Upon realizing just what the issues was, he let out a loud sigh, eyes nearly rolling into the back of his head. His voice went through a drastic transformation, switching from mildly positive to wildly exacerbated. This was obviously a familiar event.

"_No, this isn't part of the exam._" He groaned.

* * *

The halls were surprisingly empty, with the one that corresponded with the room Team Seven was allocated towards being completely so. It seemed that they were certainly the first one's here out of their assigned group, a fact that made Naruto very happy (now no one of the other genin could call him a slacker!) The three of them had been stationed outside a large looking room, along with a supervising jonin who none of them had caught the name of. He was tall and somewhat pudgy, long black hair trailing down to his shoulders. He was on the tail end of explaining the specifics of the first segment to them, which was barley a segment at all honestly. They and the other genin in their group would be locked into a room for forty-five minutes where they would be "forced" to converse around with the other teams. The man had quickly left to go supervise another group, saying he would be back when 8:00 hit.

If Sasuke had been honest, he was both glad that the task was so simple and frustrated that it was so benign. Naruto on the other hand, was only frustrated at this, not expecting the first task to be so absolutely boring. Sakura was just fearful of the fact that "socialization" was probably the one thing that could realistically tank them in the first round if you recalled the other two's antics when interacting with people. The amalgamation of their hours of training, nervousness and sleepless nights spent worrying about the exams began to manifest very quickly due to these emotions. Naruto started clicking his foot against the floor, Sakura began combing a finger through her hair and Sasuke stayed perfectly still with folded hands. It was a little bit before Naruto spoke.

"Man, this is way too easy." He said.

"Agreed." Sasuke concurred.

Sakura nodded, though she understood that the pair were mainly frustrated because they actually had to talk to people.

"Like, if they want us to talk and stuff, why do we have to do for forty-five minutes? Ten would be enough." Naruto rambled. "And he said nearly all the people in our group were from Konoha anyway, so we know most of them already."

"That's the worst bit. Imagine having to interact with someone like Ino for forty-five minutes." Sasuke frustratedly mumbled, to Sakura's silent glee. Outwardly, she just nodded along, but inwardly, she was screaming.

_**Oh ho ho! Eat that, pig!**_

Sasuke's hypothetical caused a deep dread to crawl across Naruto's face, strangely realistic when considering the banal nature of his comment.

"If I have to talk to Ino for forty-five minutes, I'm flunking out dude, I swear to god."

"Understandable." Sakura laughed back, though she was slightly put-off by how serious Naruto seemed about the statement.

"_Let's hurry, the man at the gate said people were already here!"_

"_Woah, chill out Lee, it's like two seconds- oh, there he goes_."

" _Idiot." _

The sound of echoing voices a few halls suddenly became audible, being quickly followed up by the sound of running footsteps echoing back. They were so intense in their sound, that Sasuke and Sakura actually became a little bit convinced that they belonged to some neurotic psychopath rather than another genin. Weirdly, both turned out to be true.

The footsteps became louder and louder, reverb becoming more and more coherent before suddenly, a skinny boy emerged into Team Sevens hallway. The boy in question was thin, wearing a green fabric jumpsuit over his lithe form. His eyes were completely round, with only the most basic of details within them. His shiny black hair had been fashioned into a bowl cut, with eyebrows so thick that Naruto was half-convinced he'd just dunked his face in the ground and come back with centipedes covering it. His expression was blank for a second as he focused on Team Seven.

"H- "Sakura tried to greet him but was quickly cut off by the boy sharply _jumping_ in front of her. His posture was strange (like everything else about him). He'd tucked one hand behind his back while extending the other one in front of him with an open palm. The rest of Team Seven braced, thinking that he might not have got the memo that you weren't supposed to fight immediately. This notion quickly ceased when he began to speak.

"Hello! I am Rock Lee!" He said, not altering his posture at all. His voice was loud, so loud that Sakura didn't doubt every other person in the building know knew of Rock Lee's presence. This volume caused her to just stare back at him weirdly, taking in his strangely bird-like posture.

"_This is a handshake_." Lee murmured from the side of his mouth as soon as he recognized Sakura's stiffness.

"Oh, o-okay." She said, still slightly shaken from his sudden movements. She shook his hand, weirded out by the fact that Lee seemed unable to wave the _laser-focused _eye contact he had with her even when shaking.

"What is your name?" He asked, once again way too loud when considering what he was asking.

"Sakura Haruno." She answered.

Lee jolted forwards, clutching her own hand both and his and then bowing his head against the bundle of appendage. If he'd moved any slower, Sakura would've become convinced that he was about to throw her to the ground like a ragdoll, but he was so quick that she didn't even have time to be worried

"Sakura Haruno.I respect your beauty and grace. I swear to protect you with my life!" He bellowed, continually nodding his head forwards. A sharp blush crawled up Sakura's cheeks. Not because she was at all attracted to Rock Lee, no, from the few seconds she'd spent conversing with him he seemed like a major-league weirdo. However, she couldn't help but feel a little bit flattered that a boy would lump as much attention as Lee had onto her. Her face turned into a "attempting to be sly but not actually looking sly" grin, folding her other hand over her flushed-red expression.

"Thank you, that's a really nice thing to say and I mean if that's what you think, that's what you think, I can- "Sakura had gotten so lost in murmuring to herself, that she didn't even realize Lee had already gone through the same song and dance with Naruto.

"Naruto Uzumaki, the flame of youth burns strong inside you! I swear to protect you with my life two times over." He went through the same hand bowing act that he did with Sakura, though Naruto's eyes were not fixated on the boy in front of him. Instead, they were locked onto Sakura, paired with a curvaceously smug grin.

"You hear that Sakura, _two times over_!" He commented. Sakura tried to laugh it off, but in reality, it was pretty clear she was fuming. In the meanwhile, Sasuke, who had seen Lee's routine twice, shoved his hands into his pockets to prevent him from latching on. When he got done conversing with Naruto, he tried to make this clear.

"I'm Sasuke Uchiha. "He said. Upon announcing his name, he noticed Lee's face swirl into one that was oddly serious (well, as serious as his face could be anyway). Lee retook the stance he'd done in front of Sakura, only this time his handshake hand was pointed upward, almost goading Sasuke into hitting him. This admittedly wouldn't have been that hard, with the Uchiha having found his antics supremely irritating, but it was far from his intention.

"I know who you are! I am sorry, but I cannot pledge allegiance to you just yet! You are a top level genin, finishing high in the academy so ideally, I must defeat you if I am to prove myself worthy of youth's fruitful spirit! After you are defeated…maybe then I can entrust my life to you."

Sasuke stared back at him, expression blank because there were so many thoughts running through his head that his face could only manage the most blank of faces. His emotional reaction to Lee would be, in order, irritation, confusion, amusement and frustration. He really did not know what to make of Rock Lee. Luckily, Naruto absolutely did, even if it may have been a little bit cruel.

"I reckon you can kick his ass Lee." He said with a coy grin, surprisingly managing to keep his expression subtle enough that his obvious prodding would've gone over Lee's head (though this was by no means a hard feat). Sasuke looked over at his friend, on one hand struggling to laugh but on the other, really not wanting to flunk the chunin exams because he got into a hallway punch up with fucking Rock Lee.

"Shut the fuck up Naruto."

"You guys should fight right now, while there's no jonin around" Naruto continued to nudge, getting an instantaneous response from Lee.

"I would like that."

"I'm not going to fight you in the hallway." Sasuke bluntly said, causing Lee's face to drop slightly.

"Oh, bullshit Sasuke. You're ducking him 'cause you know he'll beat the shit out of you!" Naruto chided, struggling to make it seem like he wasn't about to laugh. Luckily for him, Lee was oblivious enough that he actually seemed to be weighing the possibility of duking it out with Sasuke right here, which in term, had a domino effect onto Sasuke himself, who was now cautious of Lee snapping into action. He was probably half a second away from activating his sharingan, which would've had _major _consequences had it been noticed by his would-be opponent. Luckily, sharp feminine voice snapped all four out of their combat-crazed daze.

"_Lee!_" A girl emerged into the hallway, being slowly trailed by another boy. With their sudden appearance, Lee completely changed his posture to one that was significantly softer than his battle position. "World's fastest man over here. Seriously, would it kill you to slow it down?"

Team Seven looked at the girl with odd glances, wondering if every student on this team was bizarre. While her pattern of speech was not as loud or weirdly formal as Lee's was, she spoke so quickly that the three were essentially comprehending her words on a half-second delay. She had dark brown hair, shaped into two matching buns and wore a long-sleeved white qipao-blouse with maroon outlines on its edges. These matched the color of her pants, well some of it at least. The shoddiness of her clothes was obvious, and their natural wear and tear had been continually mended. Patches of differing fabric as well as visible re-sown thread were a constant on both her blouse and pants.

"Were you starting fights?"

"No! It was not a fight; it was a _duel_!"

She raised her hand up and playfully wacked him over the head (though Lee recoiled as if he had just been shot through the brain).

"That's the same thing nimrod."

He quickly bounced back, looking at her with pleading eyes. "It is not! A fight is more vicious in its existence, serving to- "

"Yeah, whatever, I don't have time for your essay." She chided, leaving a practically sobbing boy in the dust. Her attention became solely fixated on Team Seven, mirroring Lee in the fact that her courtesies seemed to be first reserved for Sakura in particular. "Hey, hey! I'm Tenten. Oh! I love your hair, is it dyed or natural? Nah, no way, no one's naturally pink. Wait! I can test it, hold on- "

Before Sakura had even been able to understand anything more than the fact that Tenten liked her hair, the other girl was now threading a finger through it, examining it like an investigative jonin looking for fingerprints. "Oh shit, you've really just got pink hair. That's so cool, I've only got brown hair, which is totally boring. _Bleugh_!"

She changed facial expressions so fluidly, Sakura couldn't even hope to come up with a mental image of what her resting face looked like. Under normal circumstances, she probably would've found this slightly irritating but with the built-up stress of the chunin exams running through her, Tenten actually came of as charming.

"I think it's nice, it matches your eyes." Sakura pointed out.

"That's true! I like to keep it in the buns for the symmetry, ya know?"

"Right." Sakura nodded. In the meanwhile, Naruto and Sasuke felt their gazes drift away to the boy to the side of them. He had leaned back against the wall, seemingly intent to avoid any greetings. His hair was a curious shade, both dark and light enough that it would either look black or brown depending on what angle he was standing. He wore a beige shirt thar was rounded at its ends, short sleeves rolling over his arms with the same visual curl. His most distinctive feature, however, was the color of his eyes. They were deathly pale, their lack of detail similar to Lee's, but they also contained a shot of lavender within their depths. Naruto squinted, trying not to make his staring obvious. He'd seen those eyes somewhere before, but he couldn't put his finger on _where_…

"Hello." A sudden figure blocked his view, appearing out of nowhere. The figure was spectacled, the lower portion of his mouth being covered by the coat of his jacket. His unexpected appearance caused Naruto to physically jump back, nearly slamming himself against the wall.

"_Fuck!_ Shino, you scared the shit out of me!" Naruto growled, upon realizing who the person was. Shino continued to stand completely still even in the face of Naruto's over animated vulgarity.

"Okay. Sorry." He didn't speak _fast _like Tenten did, but he did speak bluntly and quietly, making him equally as hard to hear. Instead of making any small-tack with Naruto, he just wandered off presumably to do the same thing to the others as if he was running off a greeting's checklist. Soon after, both Kiba and Hinata emerged into the hallway, trailing their teammate.

"Fuck." Naruto heard Sasuke whisper to himself, putting one hand over his whole face to try and mask the that he was using the other to hold his nose. Naruto laughed as a way of acknowledging that he'd heard this.

"Oh, there you are. Who's a good boy? You are Akamaru!" Kiba said, as a small white puppy emerged from the confines of his hoody. He scratched at the dog's chin temporarily, before setting his eyes on the rest of the genin, giving out greetings. What he didn't catch, was Sasuke's annoyed gaze settling on Naruto.

"The dog! Why's he allowed to have the dog?!" Sasuke groaned, half-whispering yet also half-shouting.

"Right? Like, is the dog gonna become a chunin too?" He replied. This conversation would've undoubtedly continued long after the topic of "Kiba smells and so does his dog" was exhausted, if Naruto had not found another figure orbiting his range.

"H-hello Naruto." Hinata said, offering a shaky wave in his direction. In Naruto's mind however, the correct sentence would've been ""H-hello Naruto_" someone _said_" _because he did not know the name of this person. He recognized this person, obviously, but in terms of a name, the presence of an "H" "I" and "N" were all he could really come up with in the way of identification. It didn't help that he caught the boy from Lee's team walking off in an apparent huff for no reason, so his focus was completely shot.

"Oh, hey- "His mouth moved faster than his mind could stop it, locking him into a situation he really shouldn't have been in. He needed an extra letter. What was the best letter? A. Shit that was just the first letter!

"Hina…"

That's it, he couldn't think quick enough to add anymore, but he also knew her name was not as shot as just "Hina". Think, _think_.

"…Hina." He said again. "Hina-Hina."

Both Hinata and Sasuke shot him odd looks, Hinata's sad because he obviously couldn't remember her name while Sasuke's was incredulous yet amused.

"That's not her name." He said, insight brought on due to his mind still lingering over the memory of Naruto attempting to get Lee to fight him. Naruto's immediate defensiveness showed through, face contorting with sudden wavy arm movements.

"Yeah, I know, except it's my nickname for her since we're really good friends. You probably just don't understand because I'm, like, your only friend." The way Naruto stammered through his response somehow actually made it more obvious that he forgot her name than if he just flat-out admitted it.

"Well if you're my only friend, how come you didn't give me a nickname?"

"Ah ha ha. See, you don't understand. I don't give all my friends nicknames, obviously, which you'd know if you had more friends." He once again stumbled through his words like a blind man in a swamp, sounding like a first-grader attempting to read from a text intended for adults. Sasuke stayed quiet for a little bit, before coming up with the best response he possibly could. He took his focus away from Naruto, instead directing it to the girl beside him.

"Hey Hinata." He said, with a greeting smile. Hinata, who was practically chin down in the fur lining of her hoodie at this point, brightened up slightly, smiling back at Sasuke.

"H-Hello Sasuke." She waved, the tips of her smile managing to peek out even from the collar of her jacket. She seemed genuinely happy that someone tried talking to her, even if Sasuke was looking at Naruto out of the corner of his eye the whole time.

"Holy shit, is that Naruto Uzumaki?" Kiba's unmistakably boisterous voice came roaring back into audibility. He strode up to the small group, Akamaru balancing himself on his shoulder. "Damn, I like your new hoodie."

"Thanks." Naruto said, surprisingly quiet considering it was he who was speaking. Sasuke, in the meanwhile, pinched his nose intensely, using the same hand cover technique to make it seem like he was just balancing a palm over his face.

"Too bad it's gonna get ruined when I kick your ass during the exams." Kiba laughed with a smirk. Any power the insult had was menial due to how awkwardly and suddenly Kiba had delivered it, as well as the fact that it wasn't a particularity creative either. Naruto consequently snorted in response.

"Yeah right, you don't know if we'll even get matched up."

"But if we did, I'd kick the shit out of you."

"Would not, I'd drop your ass in fifteen seconds tops." Naruto snarled back, with enough confidence to somewhat put Kiba off his game. See, Kiba was, in an objective sense, probably smarter (at least, book-wise) than Naruto. However, Kiba was still kind of stupid, and clearly thought he wasn't. Meanwhile, Naruto was obviously stupid but accepted it. With those parameters in mind, one could only underachieve in terms of small talk while the other had more than enough room to overachieve and nothing punctuated this better than Kiba's academy-tier level comeback.

"Yeah, well I fucked your mum for way more than fifteen seconds."

And with that, he plummeted directly into Naruto's academy-tier _comeback trap_.

"My mum's dead, so you're going to jail if you do that." He laughed to himself, only to feel a small tinge of regret on the end of his tongue when he saw Kiba's face well up with an unexpected apologia.

"Oh shit, is that true?" He said, quieter than he had been speaking before.

"Yep." Naruto nodded, mind forcing him to smile due to the awkwardness of the situation.

"Fuck dude, my bad." He apologized. In a way, it actually took the wind out of Naruto's sails. The old "my mum's dead" gambit didn't work when the person on the receiving end said sorry. It didn't help that all three watching (Hinata, Sasuke and Naruto himself) had all been so used to seeing Kiba's trademark smirk that his sadness only stuck out more when his face chose to wear it. This made for a downright painful stretch of silence before Hinata worked up the initiative to break it up.

"K-Kiba, w-we should probably go say hi to the o-other people here."

"Oh, right!" He immediately pepped up, walking along with the girl. Hinata flashed one final look at Naruto and Sasuke, waving a temporary goodbye.

"Bye Naruto. It was nice seeing you a-again." She smiled.

"See ya Hina-Hina!" He waved back, repeating the nickname. Hinata slightly blushed at the term of endearment, pulling the hood of her jacket over her head to prevent anyone from seeing. Even if the term had been born from Naruto thinking she was forgettable, he had remembered said term anyway.

_Small victories Hinata. Small victories_. She mentally chided to herself, ignorant of the fact that your crush having to call you something else because he literally couldn't remember your name more closely resembled a major defeat than a small victory.

"_Whoopty fucking do Ino, we're here. We're here two minutes earlier than we would've been had you not beat my door down, are you happy now?" _

"_Home invader, are you serious?! I swear, you are such a big baby Shika!" _

"_Oh, I am?"_

"_Yeah, cause all you do is whine and sleep __**like a baby**_.

"_You are so stupid. Literally everyone in the world does those things."_

"_Oh, everyone takes twenty-minute powernaps at every chance they get?" _

"_Yes! Everyone naps dumbass. You just don't because you're so pent up all the time it takes you an hour to decompress." _

"_Whatever, shut up. I'm not talking to you anymore." _

"_That'd be great, thanks." _

The sound of two bickering voices (alongside the ambient crackling of a potato chip packet) boomed down the hall, until three ninja finally made their appearance into the line of sight of the others. One had black hair tied into a messy spiked ponytail behind his head, along with a short sleeve grey jacket and black t-shirt with green highlights. The girl he'd been bickering with, had her platinum blonde tied into a similar ponytail, along with a large streak that lay over her eye. The round boy behind them munched into a chip packet. He wore a green overcoat and long white scarf, in addition to headgear that connected with his forehead protector.

Ino's demeanor went from irritated to sickly sweet however, as she caught a glimpse of a boy to her left.

"Oh, hey Sasuke!" She said, seductively winking in his direction (which could have also been a way for her to block Naruto out from her peripheral vision in favor of just focusing on the Uchiha). The boy in question looked to his side, raising his hand up in a wave for a second before dropping any attention. From her still on-going conversation with Tenten, Sakura couldn't help but crack a small smile at this. This smile quickly turned into a look of slight confusion, as she watched Choji make a beeline towards Naruto.

"_Narutoooo!_" He screamed, physically picking him of the ground as he smothered him in a hug.

"'ey 'oji'" Naruto's words feel short as he squirmed through the bigger boy's iron-clad grasp. Coherence was only restored to him after he'd been placed down onto the ground.

"How have you been buddy?" Choji asked, seeming genuinely interested despite the fact that he and Naruto had never been close at all.

"Uh…good. You know, just doing ninja stuff." Naruto said awkwardly, still being slightly winded by the vice-lock he'd just been placed in. Choji nodded along, his big dumb smile occasionally giving way to let him stuff another handful of chips into his mouth. After Naruto was finished speaking, he would proceed to do the same thing to essentially everyone else in the room (excluding the people he didn't know, as well as Sasuke, although those were essentially one in the same.) It came as little surprise. Choji had always been friendly, which was a pale contrast to his teammates. One of them was introducing herself with a look that could only be described as a permanent sneer, whereas the other was leaning against a wall with exactly zero care for pleasantries. Soon after, the jonin that had explained the rules of the next segment to Team Seven made his way into the vicinity, bringing a wave of silence with him. The genin crowded around, dividing themselves back into their teams as they did so.

"Okay, my names Niro Manakachi, I'm going to be assisting in this segment of the test. Now, before I go over all the details, are all the teams here?" He retrieved a piece of paper from his clipboard, reading over it.

"Team 7. Sensei: Kakashi Hatake"

"_Here_." The three members said in unison.

"Team 8. Sensei: Kurenai Yuhi."

"Here." Kiba's voice was the only one actually audible, whereas his team mates just mumbled.

"Team 10. Sensei: Asuma Sarutobi."

"Here." Choji and Ino said, whereas Shikamaru just idly raised his hand up.

"Team 13. Sensei: Might Guy."

"_Here!_" Lee and Tenten both attempted to beat each other to the punch of calling out the name, whereas their lavender eyed companion stayed completely silent.

"Team _sey_. Sensei: Baki of The Sand?" His request was met with silence and confusion from the genin in front of him. It took a few seconds before he repeated his application.

"Team _sey_. Sensei: Baki Of the Sand."

Tenten was quick to speak up.

"They're not here."

Niro looked up from the clipboard. The team wasn't late by any means, but they were definitely cutting it far closer than any other genin (except maybe Shikamaru) would've been willing to.

"Judging by their sensei and team number, I'm assuming they're from Suna. They might be having trouble getting here if they only speak Sunanese." He commented, though this was unlikely. You had a better chance of finding someone who spoke both Otsusukish and Sunanese in Suna, than you did of finding someone who was purely spoke the latter. This chance only increased when you put into perspective that 95% of the only-Sunanese speaking population of Suna were over 35 years of age.

A sudden array of footsteps resonated into the clustered genin's ears. Soon after, a group of three was brought into view. The one heading up the front was a girl, quadrilateral blond hair and misty blue eyes illuminating her presence. She wore a long black, almost robe like gown that trickled down her feet. A red sash was tied across her waist, leaving two crimson trails in her wake while her headband was rapped slackly around her neck. Next to her stood a slightly pudgy boy dressed in full black puppetry gear. Painted purple spikes ran through the outlines of his face, bestowing a sinister glint to his features. Unfortunately, if he was trying to look scary, it didn't work. When Naruto's eyes grazed over him, he had to physically bite his tongue to suppress the instinctive giggles that were crawling up his mouth. On his back lay a large bandaged object, the contents of which none of the genin could figure out.

Behind both suna ninja, stood a shorter boy. His hair was crimson like blood, matching the large tattoo which rested on his forehead. His eyes were sunken, with sleeping bags so dark, they ceased to even look like bags as much as patches of dead, withered skin. He wore a loose black baggy top, which was covered by an equally baggy and ill-fitting long-sleeved red coat. A majority of his face was covered with a large cloth scarf that climbed from his neck, resting just a bit below his nose. However, he quickly discarded the ware and wrapped it around his chest as the need to have it on decreased in the lukewarm inside air. Much like his two teammates, he also had an object strapped to his back. This came in the form of a large gourd of god knows what, which connected to a large leather strap that curved around his chest (and also served as a spot to put his forehead protector)

"Sorry, are we late?" The girl asked, the sly grin on her features telling everyone that she already knew she wasn't. Niro shook his head, tapping a finger at his clipboard.

"I assume you're Temari of The Sand?" He said, motioning to the Suna symbol she had engraved on her forehead protector.

Temari nodded.

"And these two are Kankuro and Gaara?" Kankuro shot a lazy thumbs up, Gaara stayed perfectly still. The jonin scrawled something over his paper, before stuffing the pen into his pocket and swapping it out for a key. With a crack, he unlocked the door to the room that the teams had been waiting outside, inviting them in with a large hand gesture. Excited to move onto the next phase, they packed into the area, finding something significantly homier than they expected for an exam that essentially promoted the idea that you might die during it.

"Hey, this is pretty snazzy." Kiba said, as he looked over the room. It was incredibly spacious; numerous couches and tables being laid out for the genin. There were also a multitude shelves lined with snacks, drinks and board games (including ones Sakura quickly noticed would take far too long to play in the forty-five minutes they apparently had).

"Okay, this is where you'll be staying for the next forty-five minutes. This is more of an icebreaker then anything. Just socialize amongst yourselves for the time allocated and you'll be let into the next phase of the exam." He said, pointing to the large clock at the head of the room. "Once the big hand reaches the halfway point of the clock, you'll be free to go onto the next section."

He then pointed over towards the door that hung near it. "It's right through there in fact, so don't worry about not knowing where to go."

He quickly reshuffled his focus around to the twin doors embedded in the wall that ran perpendicular to the clock. "This is a private room. It fits two people only, if any more than that are detected inside, the doors will lock and the team of whoever's in there will fail the exam."

He then motioned to another door that sat strangely close to it. "That's the bathroom. Same rules allowed, only this time only one at a time. You will not be permitted to leave this room but in the event of an emergency, I'll be guarding the door outside. Knock twice, and I'll open it to see what the problem is. Understood?"

A collective nod broke out from the teams in attendance.

"That's all you need to know. Enjoy these forty-five minutes kids, because it gets a lot harder from here on out." He tilted his head slightly, before fully slamming the door shut. A small clink was heard afterward, signifying that they were now fully locked into the room. After a little bit of weighted silence, everyone remembered that literally all they were instructed to do was socialize (and they didn't even really need to). A mass of chatter erupted in record fast time, to the point where Sasuke noted this may end badly should the proctors in the next room happen to hear exactly how loud they were.

"Come on Sakura, let's sit over here!" Tenten beckoned, leading her towards a triangle of couches. The pink-haired girl paused, looking back at Naruto and Sasuke.

"Wait, hold on. My team's back there- "

"Yeah so? They can come too." Tenten's figure moved from Sakura over to Sasuke and Naruto, who followed suite over to the couch triangle. The couches were composed of a rough leather and sat up to three people on each one. Sasuke, Naruto and Sakura sat on one, whereas Tenten took a seat to their right.

"Hey, Sakura, stop getting buddy-buddy with the enemy!" Naruto yelled as he sat, clearly not enthused at being dragged over to the couches. He was going to sit on them anyway, but he didn't want someone _saying _he had to sit on them.

"Oh yeah, I'm just spilling out our team secrets to Tenten." She turned directly to face the other girl, a faux-smugness clear on her face. "Hey, did you know Naruto gets bed sores on the inside of his knees?"

"Oh no, I didn't know that!" The pair were clearly joking, that much was obvious from their voices and over-animated body movements. However, the situation Sakura had described actually hit close enough to home that Naruto began to get defensive.

"Actually, it wasn't bed sores, it was a one-time rash. Only dumb old people get bed sores." Naruto growled, only for his speedy self-justifying tone to slow down as he realized the looks, he was getting from the two girls. Sasuke's head was aloofly tilted so that he wasn't facing the conversation, but even he couldn't help but let a small curve grace his lips. With that, Naruto quickly began backtracking on the status of his rash.

"I mean, _haha_, that's funny. Mostly it's funny because I don't get bedsores, or, like, anything on the insides of my knees."

"Got ya'." Tenten replied, bemusedly smirking at the Uzumaki's embarrassment. "Hey, is there anything you want to know from my team?"

Sasuke surprisingly spoke before either of his teammates could respond to the only half-serous question.

"Who's he?" His gaze shot out of the back of the couch, lingering towards the lavender-eyed boy who was once again leaning against a wall on his lonesome. He had completely disconnected himself from not only the rest of his team, but the rest of the entire group as well, not having spoken to a single other genin as far as Sasuke knew. He found it eerily reflective.

"That's Neji. He's a total asshole." Tenten spoke too quickly for her own good, blurting out her true feelings and then quickly trying to cover them up. "I mean, he's okay. He's fine. He's cool. Just kind of quiet, that's all."

Naruto looked over the apparently stoic boy as well, noting his features. He had the same eyes as Hina-Hina. Could they have been related? In response, his mind boated up the distinct memory of Neji walking away after she had come near him. Why would he do that if they were family? She was from a famous clan wasn't she, maybe they were trying to hide it? They were both pretty big idiots then, because they had the same weirdo eyes that even Naruto could successively recognize. What was up with those two-

"Oh god, Lee no!" Tenten cried observing her teammate attempting to shake the hand of the red-haired Suna boy across the side of the room. She practically leapt out of her chair, power-walking over to try and stop him. Team Seven became fixated on the sight, Sakura specifically focused on Gaara's eyes.

"Look at the black stuff around his eyes. What's up with that?" She asked, getting a monotone response from Sasuke.

"I know. It's pretty ghoulish." He said, earning a snort from the girl across from him.

"Ha! Ghoulish?"

"It means like a ghoul." He slightly smiled back.

"I know. It just sounds funny in your voice."

"Shut up you guys. Maybe he was just too nervous to sleep last night, It's not his fault!" Naruto reprimanded, sounding genuinely sorry for the boy (probably because he emphasized with his own thesis). Sakura's face immediately fell, obvious apologia overtaking her features.

"Ah, you're right. Sorry." She felt bad for literally one second until Sasuke made her laugh again.

"Was he nervous for the entire month or something?" Sauske said, which actually got Sakura and Naruto laughing, despite immediately regretting it upon realizing that this was still mean.

In the meanwhile, Lee had stuck his hand out forwards in similar posture to what he had done to Sakura earlier. One hand titled at an odd-angle for a handshake, with the other tucked around his back. Gaara stayed completely expressionless in the face of this, barely even mustering enough emotion to blink. An odd, awkward silence ensured before Lee finally mumbled in the same way he had earlier.

"_This is a handshake_."

Gaara still did not do anything. This came as a surprise to Lee, who was used to people actually understanding when you told them what you were trying to instigate. The thought did not cross his mind that maybe Gaara simply didn't want to shake his hand and refused to. If it had, he most likely wouldn't have shoved his palm right up into the other boy's face like he proceeded to do. Gaara's eyes briefly moved, presumably to scout the fact that he had not just been punched in the face before he looked back to Lee himself.

"Do not touch me." Was all he said, voice low, gravely and unbecoming of his appearance. Lee looked confused, wondering why exactly you wouldn't want touch someone who was offering you a handshake. Just in time to **not** save the situation, Tenten leapt up, grabbing Lee by the shoulders and beginning to pull him away.

"Hey! Tenten, what the-" He protested.

"_Le_e. He's from Suna, they don't really do handshakes there." She lied. In reality, handshakes were no uncommon in Suna than they were in Konoha. Tenten just realized the kid with a big tattoo on his head and pitch-black sleeping bags around his eyes might not be the best person for someone as…loud as Lee to be interacting with. It helped that he bought the lie without second thought, face cartoonishly swelling up into one of shame.

"Ah! I'm sorry, I was unaware!" He said, Gaara yet again blanking him on the response. Luckily, Tenten was able to pull Lee away before he could embarrass himself further (even if he blurted out apologies halfway to the couch.)

"Come on. Let's go sit with those guys you were talking to earlier…" She said, dragging him back to the couch with her. Gaara stayed completely still for a few seconds, his lifeless eyes meaning he more closely resembled a statue than a person before he turned around and began to look for his teammates. He spotted the pair sitting in a far corner of the room. They were sitting on bar stools that were far too short for them which orbited a table that was far too tall for them. Each of their back accessories (the large metal bar and weird bandage ball) had been placed onto the ground to relieve strain.

"Hey, what were you talking to that guy about?" Kankuro asked nonchalantly, as Gaara approached the table.

"Nothing. He tried to touch me." Gaara spoke, sitting down at the stool. The lighting was quite dim over here. Well, it wasn't like the whole room itself was particularly well lit but this corner was still dim all the same.

"I think he was just trying to shake your hand." Kankuro explained, face clearly unimpressed. Gaara's eyes twitched, an immediate brace shooting down the other boy's spine as he prepared for what could've been a very bad situation. Luckily, the twitch was fleeting, and Gaara remained composed.

"I didn't want to touch him." He folded his arms over the other, looking dead ahead at no body. Despite all their years knowing Gaara, the two could never figure out if he did that because he was unaware or because he didn't consider them worth looking at. In a stage way, Kankuro thought it might be both.

Gaara coughed slightly before mechanically wiping at it with his scarf. "I found him irritating and nonthreatening. I want to kill him."

Temari looked back at him casually, incredibly relaxed considering he'd just admitted he wanted to attempt murder.

"Well, we'll see how the exam goes. Maybe you'll get the chance in the later rounds. Just put a little bit more pressure on and act like it was an accident."

Gaara nodded slightly, before becoming completely still again. This stillness lasted around thirty seconds before he began to uneasily shuffle.

"Why are we not sitting on a couch? These seats are uncomfortable."

"Hey, wake that guy over there up and it's all yours." Kankuro motioned to Shikamaru, who was currently draping himself over the entire length of the couch, mumbling something to Kiba. Their respective teams were both orbiting around the couch, so he imagined he'd face serious push back if he attempted to take it for himself. Gaara looked around further and found a free couch, but it was surrounded by two others, one of which contained the Lee boy. Gaara did not want to risk having to interact with him again, so he stayed put on the uncomfortable chairs.

After all, in the small time it had taken him to look around, he'd found something significantly more important than his own comfortability. His pale green eyes became locked upon Naruto, transfixed upon the boy like he was work of fine art. It took a short while until he managed to tear his head away from the sight and over to Temari.

"Sister, is that the nine-tails?" He asked. There was only the smallest glimmer of emotion in his eye, but it still took his sibling slightly off-guard. She looked back to his point of interest, squinting to try and see better.

"Which one?"

"Orange hoodie."

She spent a second evaluating the boy, before turning back to her brother.

"Unless there's another blond with whiskers in this room, it's him."

"Oh shit, I found another one. She's right across the table from me." Kankuro laughed to himself, much to Temari's annoyance.

"Shut up."

"What? Everyone has hair on their face, don't get pissy at me for pointing it out?"

Gaara payed no mind to the voices of the pair, their petty sibling squabbles being well and truly beneath him. Instead, his gaze continued to linger on Naruto, eyes occasionally flickering to the boy even when Gaara was set to look straight ahead. However, Gaara was not just doing this to satiate his own curiosity, he was doing it for someone else's too. The classic idiom about two mouths to feed rung true, after all.

_**Shit, is Kurama inside him? Man, I haven't seen Kurama in years! Not since those mist sickos went nuts at least. Oh boy! Get through the exams quick, Gaara please! I can't wait to see him**_ _**again!**_

He truly hated the contributor of the voice, but he couldn't help but echo the sentiment. He was _very _excited to meet Naruto Uzumaki.

* * *

Niro leaned against the wall, whistling a tune he'd recently heard on a record as he did. His black hair messily draped down over his face. He could hear the chatter of the genin even through the relativity thick walls. Suddenly, another jonin appeared, walking down the hall while neurotically tapping at his clipboard. He had fair brown hair tied into a ratail at the back of his head. Niro's eyes peeped up as he saw him, waving over to the other ninja.

"Hey, Hisume!" He waved, commanding the other man's attention.

"Oh, hey Niro! How's it going?"

"I supervising the chunin exam on unpaid hours, what do you think?" Niro groaned, rolling his eyes back for emphasis. Hisume laughed, looking over at the door to the others left. His face became immediately interested.

"Oh! Is that the locked room segment?"

Niro nodded.

"Wow! You think they'll figure it out?"

He looked back at the door for a second before returning his gaze to Hitsume. "I didn't really get to know them outside of greetings and stuff, so I can't really give a analyical rundown or whatever, but, if I was betting man..."

He paused, fulling calculating his response.

"I'd say they're flunking out in the first round."


	24. The Rules Of Inference I

"Get up right now or I'll- "Ino screamed only to be cut off by the boy who was strewn out on the couch in front of her.

"Or you'll do what? If you didn't want to deal with this, maybe you shouldn't have woken me up so early." Shikamaru murmured, shuffling back into the couch like it was his bed.

Ino fumed, practically ready to punch her teammate should cooler heads not prevail. She stored the option in the back of her mind, favoring a more bargain-focused approach when dealing with Shikamaru.

"Just nudge over a little bit. You can keep the other two spots, just give me one!"

Shikamaru cocked an eye open at the suggestion. For a brief second, she became convinced that he was actually going to budge and let her sit down. That was before, with the same condescending, drowsy tone he always spoke in, Shikamaru said:

"How much?"

She saw red.

"_I'm not paying you for a fucking couch seat!_"

"Well then you're not **getting a couch seat**. I can't just give them away to anybody, can I?"

She was about to ask who died and gave Shikamaru the deed to right of the couch when Choji emerged from behind her, pockets packed with the snacks that had previously lined the shelves.

"Hey Shikamaru, scooch over."

He did it instantly, showing absolutely zero commitment to the toll he'd insisted upon literally a second ago. The fact that it was Choji made Ino even madder, considering Shikamaru now had to give up a spot and a half to accommodate the other boy's fat frame, whereas he only would have had to give her one. Steam may as well have been blowing out her ears as she stomped her foot on the ground, jolting her finger out at the two.

"That's it! You two are the laziest, stupidest people I've ever met in my life. I'd rather go sit on that couch with billboard brow then you morons!"

Choji stayed blank-faced, munching on a pork rind while Shikamaru shot her a droopy eyed stare.

"Do it then."

"I will!" She shouted, stomping off to said couch.

Shikamaru and Choji continued to not care, the latter shooting the former a humorous look.

"These exams are seeming super easy, huh?" He laughed, to which Shikamaru nodded.

Judging from the glazed-over look that the Nara boy had, his brain had essentially gone on autopilot for the last few minutes, which Choji recognized. The plump boy returned his gaze onward, realizing any attempt get more conversation out of Shikamaru would probably result in five-minute headache of mumbles and one-word answers. It was par for the course when interacting with Shikamaru, he supposed. The boy was his best friend, but he wasn't switched on at all. That as Choji's thesis at least. However, his thesis was wrong, incredibly wrong. Shikamauru's eternally-calculating eyes locked themselves upon the doorway to the next exam, running over its details completely before turning over to the clock. An unnoteworthy amount of time had gone past.

_Just socialize for forty-five minutes and we'll pass you. What a joke. _

From what he knew about the chunin exams, a general rule of thumb was that its fail conditions were often swift, brutal and bordering on unfair in how they tricked you. If they were "just getting to know each other" like they'd said, why did they have a suna squad in their group? It would've been more practical to place one of the other Konoha groups in their place, as they would've actually been a recurring face after the exam finished. With that in mind, how could they not realize that a majority of the teams they'd placed in this group were in the same Academy class? It seemed to defeat the purpose of the whole "getting to know each other" when sixty percent already did. From a certain point of view, it was very easy to perceive the padding the group with familiar faces as an easy way of making the exam feel safer and more comfortable than they really were.

Also, if the aim was really to introduce everyone to each other, why were the rules so specific? Exactly forty-five minutes until they were led into the next section of the exam, but why the clock? Only two people allowed in the private room? Why the connection between this area and the area for the next part of the exam? Shikamaru hoped he was wrong, but it had become pretty clear to him that the rules of the game were not as they had been told. If he were to guess, the timer was simply ticking down until they were all failed.

_Uh, I knew the exams were going to be a drag, but this is next level._

He stood up from his spot on the couch, walking over to a shelf that had caught his eye earlier.

"I'm going to look at the shogi board." He said, waving at Choji.

"Okay." The other boy replied.

Shikamaru had spotted the design of the shogi box as soon as he'd entered the room, but now, he was more interested in a different purpose for the box. He slid the tightly-packed container of the shelf, observing it's cover for a specific line of text.

_Includes gambit trackers_. He read, finding it printed in small font at the very top of the box.

Gambit trackers were nowhere near as cool as they sounded, simply being small slips of paper that you could use to make notes of plays and positions. In his opinion, they were detrimental to the shogi experience and were not to be used in proper games, but in this case, they actually helped him. He reached into his satchel, retrieving a pen and biting the lid off. To think he almost forgot to pack this, stupid Ino. Speaking of which, she was really what this was about. He partially regretted not telling her about his theory earlier, but Team 8 was well within the range required to hear even the slightest whisper. He supposed he could've maybe told them as well, but he didn't know how many teams would be allowed to pass. Say there was a key or something, maybe only the team that used it would be allowed to move onto the next segment.

He lazily scrawled a message onto the note, handwriting surprisingly neat though the speed at which he wrote also being critically lazy. He stuffed the note into his pocket, looking around to make sure the coast was clear as he put the board back onto the shelf. He did this sluggishly, barley even checking the full perimeter before walking off. If he had, he would've seen the piercing red eyes that had just seen his exact hand motion.

Sasuke's sharingan flickered in the dim light. Though it may not have had the ability to store the copied motions like Kakashi's did, he could track said motions all the same. Using just the sight of Shikamaru's scrawl, he was able to decipher the note's contents, reading the words back to himself in his head.

"_**It's a trick. If we don't break out into the next room in the next forty-five minutes, we fail. Meet in private room to discuss strategy." **_

* * *

"Billboard brow?" Tenten asked, eyes slanting in confusion. Her breath smelt of fizz, courtesy of the soda she'd just retrieved from the shelf and promptly chugged completely.

"Yeah, because she has a big forehead." Ino explained, motioning to an incredibly annoyed Sakura.

Tenten turned over to the other girl, analyzing the point of interest for a second before turning back to Ino unimpressed.

"It's only, like, two and half centimeters bigger than average." She shot back, taking the wind out of Ino's sails. That same wind flew past the Yamanka girl and right into Sakura, who nearly jumped out of her chair with excitement.

" _That's right! _Plus, it'll look smaller when I'm older!" She clarified with a shiny smile, while Ino groaned upon being subjected to the same trotted out excuses she'd heard since the fifth grade.

"Yeah, but you still look ugly now."

She tried to amplify the insult, but the fact that Sakura had been, for the first time ever, vindicated instead of ganged up on by a third party in this dispute meant the blond had no chance in getting through to her.

"Do not, two and half centimeters is not the make and break for attractiveness pig!" She nearly screamed, pushing a jittering hand in Ino's face.

At this point, the Yamanaka realized it was a lost cause with Tenten somehow managing to be the only girl in Konoha that was lamer than Sakura. Well, then again Hinata also existed but at least Hinata had a fancy clan. Tenten, as far as she knew, didn't even have a surname in the first place, let alone a clan connection.

Neji pressed folded his hands over his face, shuffling further to the side. He didn't know why Tenten had dragged him over to the couch. It was something to do with "showing that they were unified" but he didn't know why they his teammates thought he'd want to seem unified with them. If it wasn't bad enough that he had to listen to the rest of these idiots talk, he was also sat next to Lee, meaning every time the other boy got into a conversation, he had to duck to try and get out of the way of his flailing arms. He was truly surrounded by idiots, but unfortunately for him, this problem was about to be compounded.

"H-hey, Kiba." Hinata murmured from across the room, watching as the genin on the couch triangle conversed.

"Hm?" He asked, one eye on her and one eye on Shino, who was crouched down on the ground for no discernable reason.

"D-do y-you want to go sit on that couch?" She pointed a shaky finger over to the area, which made Kiba instantly laugh.

"What, cause Naruto's there and you've got a big crush on him?"

Her face went bright red, much to Kiba's delight. While the boy wasn't a bully by any means, he did enjoy teasing people, and Hinata provided a reaction every time. She was too nice for her own good. The only reason he didn't do it more often was that, one, he wasn't a total asshole and, secondly, in the teasing hierarchy, she was the lowest of low hanging fruits.

"N-no! I just w-want to sit down!" She stammered, only to be cut off by Shino.

"Hinata." He said, bluntly delivering her name. Even through his spectacles, she could make out a stern gaze. "Do not crush him. We cannot fight our opponents until the proctor instructs us to."

Hinata's embarrassed features became confused, whereas Kiba just frowned.

"No dummy, that's not what it…whatever, you're hopeless." He sighed, before wiping the frown off his face. "You wanna come sit down too?"

Shino robotically shook his head.

"No. I am doing something important." He vaguely said, gaze turning back to the wall as if there was some invisible anomaly that had caught his attention. Kiba grimaced at his friend's oddness, before leaving him be and walking over to the couch while motioning Hinata to come with him. Of course, as soon as he entered the other ninjas' range of sight, he felt a sporadic need to introduce himself as loudly and obnoxiously as possible.

"Sup bitches." He said, slinking down on the same couch Ino was sitting. Hinata followed his lead, completely filling out the furniture's space. The Yamanka girl sneered at his presence, eyes displaying little respect for the Inuzuka boy as they peered back at him.

"Hey Kiba, where's your dog?"

Ino (who had not priorly been privy to Akamaru's presence), made the simple assumption that the dog would be barred from the exams and attempted to insult Kiba accordingly. Unfortunately, the boy just shot her a small smile which was echoed by a small white face popping out of his hoodie.

"He's right here." He laughed, stroking a finger through his pup's smooth coat. Ino scowled at the dog's sudden appearance, eyes swelling up with a questioning glance.

"I was being sarcastic! How come you're allowed to keep him with you?"

"Cause I'm an Inuzuka dumbass!" Kiba shot back, becoming completely defensive as Akamaru was insulted.

"Yeah, well I call that clan bias!" Ino shouted. Kiba's defensiveness faded in favor of a slight confusion.

"Wait, in the academy you said the Inzuka's were the loser clan."

"They are."

"So how can we have any bias against us if we're the loser clan?!" He shouted back. Anger coursed through his core, so much so that he nearly slammed himself into Hinata as he attempted to dispose of the energy that was building up.

Speaking of clans, Naruto thought, looking over at Hinata and then Neji. They did have the same eyes! Identically so, down to the lavender gradient! Surely this would be a good conversation starter that could not lead to any undue stress early in the exams. Afterall, the two were family, they probably got it a lot.

"Hey, why do you guys have the same eyes?" He asked out of the blue.

The randomness of this question completely silenced anything else going on, including the petty arguments of Ino and Kiba. Unfortunately, the residual anger of this argument still lingered inside one of them.

"Who, Naruto? You can't just say that and then not point out who you're talking about." Ino said, prompting Naruto to further explain.

At this point, he'd captured everyone on the couches' attention so he began to feel a little bit self-conscious about his mistake. Nevertheless, he pushed onward, thrusting a finger out towards Hinata and Neji. The symmetry between the two's expressions was non-existent. Neji looked aggravated, Hinata looked frightened. They were so different, that for a minute, you'd be excused for thinking their eyes didn't look at all alike.

"Look, they've got the same eyes."

"Oh, shut the fuck up. You can't even remember her name but suddenly you're an optometrist?" Ino yelled, ignoring the fact that literally anyone could look at the two and see that they had identical eyes. It was clear her motivation was more centered around shitting on Naruto than anything, which had probably aggravated at her last two swing and miss attempts at bullying people prior. Unfortunately, Naruto stumbled into the bait, defensiveness shoving rationality out of the way and taking full control of the wheel (It would've helped if he didn't have the memory of a goldfish and had remembered that Sasuke had literally said her name no more than some ten odd minutes ago)

"I do so know her name."

"You didn't before." Sasuke idly commented, more focused on Shikamaru's prior writing than anything else.

"My name is- "Hinata tried to start but she was quickly cut off.

Even removing her self-consciousness and timid nature, her voice was just naturally quiet. In the oncoming storm of sound that was an argument between Naruto and Ino, she had no chance of getting a word out (even if the conversation was literally about her).

"Damn Naruto, she sat next to you every day for nearly the whole academy. That's fucked up dude." Kiba said sternly.

He may not have meant to fan the flames of a volatile conversation, but that's functionally what he achieved, so intent was really a non-factor.

"I do know her name!"

"Then what is it?" Ino asked, clearly confident that he couldn't achieve the goal.

This confidence turned out to be well-founded, as Naruto spent the next few seconds gob smacked and silent, looking as if he had just been asked to create a functioning world peace instead of saying his classmates name.

"…. Uh…I don't have to prove anything to you!" He growled. Sakura and Sasuke both grimaced at the reply, knowing that it was blood in the water for the sharks that were surrounding him.

"My name is- "Hinata tried to speak again, only to yet again be cut off by Ino shouting in her defense.

"I'm not asking you for the theory of reincarnation here, just say her goddamn name." The Yamanaka growled, flustering Naruto further.

"I-I-I-" He stuttered, struggling to even get a word out in the face of the scrutiny that was being layered on him.

His arms flailed around him like a drowning man, and that analogy was actually more pertinent to the situation than just the visual. Not only was he _drowning _in the pool of shame, who's water level grew higher and higher every minute he spent wriggling around the subject, but he also spoke like he was _literally drowning_. However, the law of a flustered Naruto Uzumaki dictated that for all the time he spent flustered, his response would convert said embarrassment into angered yelling.

"_My name is-_ "Hinata tried to step in, voice uncharacteristically annoyed but despite this change in tone, it was silenced all the same.

Nothing could stop the oncoming force of an agitated Naruto Uzumaki.

"Her names Hinaba Hyugi or something like that!" He blurted, butchering her name so badly that Kiba couldn't help but burst out laughing while Ino looked at him with a glare.

"Oh, big surprise, you got it wrong. Seriously Naruto, that's so inconsiderate!" She growled.

Her scolding spree actually ended up getting an unexpected ally in the form of Rock Lee, who spoke up from across the couch.

"I agree! How could you neglect a comrade like that Naruto? I have spent approximately twenty seconds talking to her and even I know her name is Hinata Hyuga!" He said, recalling an exchange the two had had in the hallway.

Naruto stammered at first, before firing back with what may have been the worst response he could've said.

"Well I was close, wasn't I?" He barked, before immediately realizing that being close did not even reach the bare minimum of standards that came with remembering someone's name.

His scowling features quickly began to soften, creating a downward drooping effect with his whiskers. His eyes shot downcast, focusing on the ground even if his attention was fixated towards Hinata. "Sorry for not remembering your name Hina-Hina."

His voice was low in its tone, the sincerity he was obviously speaking with managing to negate the fact that he had once more used the nickname that had been born out of the same necessity he was not being scrutinized for. In an act that could either have been described as kind or spineless depending on how you looked at it, Hinata simply shot a gentle smile back in his direction.

"It's o-okay Naruto. It's really no problem- "

"This is pathetic."

All eyes shot onto towards the voice that had just cut Hinata off. It actually took a little while to find the speaker, because his voice was such an anomaly at this point that nearly no one recognized it. Thanks to Lee and Teten however, the perpetrator quickly became clear. Neji had spoken in more than murmurs for the first time that day. Hinata's eyes sunk down into her hoodie in an attempt to try and hide her reaction to the comment, whereas everyone else flashed simultaneous glances of confusion around each other. That was, except for Naruto, who smiled now that his initial thought of the two being related seemed to have become at least somewhat justified.

"Ah, I get it! You guys are brother and sister, right?" He asked. His voice rippled with a misplaced joviality that was not returned by Neji.

"Shut up. We're cousins and nothing more. To share more blood with a main house pig than I already have to would be a fate worse than death." He sneered, the sheer venom in his words sending Hinata burrowing even further into the collar of her coat.

"Oh, come on Neji."

"Neji, that's no way to address a fellow ninja!"

"Who the fuck are you dude?"

Tenten, Lee and Kiba tried to argue but were completely ignored for the time being. Neji's withering gaze was completely fixated on Hinata. It was outstanding how much hatred he could fit into a glare when he didn't even have pupils but the sheer spite that was pouring from his eyes was unmistakably palpable.

"A main house pig?" Naruto asked, not quite understanding the insult.

Unlike the other responses, Neji was quick to give an answer to this as it gave him a chance to further demean Hinata.

"In our clan, the Hyuga clan, there are two houses. The main house, chosen favorites that run through the _**pure**_ bloodline of the Hyuga ancestors. The branch house are the siblings and descendants that didn't get so lucky as to win the clan's favor. They say it's set up this way to "protect the secrets of the byakugan" by creating a defensive force subservient to the main house but all it really is is a safe haven for failures like her to be allowed chance upon chance upon chance to thrive, even if she has firmly cemented the fact that she is incapable of doing so." The boy spat, eyes never leaving Hinata. This was punctuated even further by the fact she couldn't even raise her own to try and meet his, not even for a second. Unfortunately for Neji though, someone else would soon demand his attention.

"Failure? Hina-Hina isn't a failure! I remember she finished really high on the end of year exams." Naruto interrupted. Finally, Neji

"She was a direct descendant of a Hyuga clan leader and couldn't even make it to the top three. She was ranked fifth in her year level, which I suppose to the boy who spends his time painting the Hokage Rock may seem like a grand accomplishment, but it was an unprecedented disappointment to the people who allow still allow her to coast on the clan's name." He growled, giving Naruto pause.

Hinata just breathed a sigh of relief for the moment. She felt cowardly for doing so, but she couldn't help it. Having Neji lock his ire onto Naruto instead of her for the moment meant she was involved in less confrontation.

"Hokage Rock_? _Wait, how do you know about that?!"

"Because _you painted the Hokage Rock_." He said back plainly. Naruto felt dumb for a few seconds, before shifting back into the grove of aggravation.

"So, what anyway? It'll make a cool story when I become Hokage!" He grinned, only for that same sunny grin to become entrenched by corresponding moonlight as Neji insulted him in the worst possible way he could.

He didn't belittle him or call him deluded, no, instead he laughed. Sure, Naruto had been laughed at before, in nearly the exact same context, but there was something so _demeaning _about the way Neji did it. Maybe it was because the Hyuga boy was not even forcing it out of himself. The laugh had been so quick, and so different to the tone he had previously been speaking in, that there was no doubt in Naruto's mind that the boy's hilarity was genuine.

"_Oh my god_." He groaned to himself, an undercurrent of giggles still lingering through his words.

His attention once again became laser-focused upon Hinata, ignoring Naruto's presence completely for the time being. "That's why you're obsessed with him, isn't it Hinata? At first, I thought it was some childish schoolyard thing but no, I get it now. You are able to parasitically feed off of his energy because it feels nice to know someone exists who is somehow **more of a loser than you**."

It was in that moment that Neji found himself being smacked over the head by an incredibly angry Naruto. In the short term this worked, the arrogant laughter being physically struck out of Neji's face. While it wasn't anything more than a slight hit, it did give Naruto time to stand up, leering over the Hyuga. His eyes had been set ablaze with the will of fire, strands of which sizzled up from his core and imbedded themselves within his gaze.

"Shut the hell up. Don't you ever- "He attempted to monologue, only for the speech to be ended prematurely.

See, Neji was, surprisingly, not willing to get slapped over the head and then proceed to listen to some rambling speech from the person who had slapped him. Instead, he leapt back up to his feet and delivered a palm strike into Naruto's face with enough force to nearly break his nose. Unlike Naruto's own attack, which simply left a red mark on the other boy's face, his attack hit hard enough to send Naruto spiraling to the ground. The Uzumaki's cognitive abilities shattered in time with his body dropping, his senses beginning to meld together in a serve bout of nausea.

Through the nauseating mix of sight, sound and smell, Naruto could make out a few things. The first was blurry figure, who was presumably Lee judging from the green that bleed into Naruto's eyes when he looked at him, dragging Neji away. On the other side of the couch was another silhouette (maybe Sasuke judging by the barley-audible voice), yelling something aggressively. Then he felt the hands of someone begin dragging him backward, though their touch felt strangely light against the collar of his jacket.

"Hinata, can you get some water?" A voice called out from behind him. His fuzzy mind made it tough to decipher the person speaking, its softness being the only trait he could really make out outside of vague feminine qualities. In this state, could only really narrow it down to Sakura and Tenten, most likely the former considering what they had said was slow enough for him to understand (Although, in all fairness, he may have been so out of it that anything anyone said would be slowed down form him). A sharp hit of drowsiness began crawling through his head a few seconds later, drawing him closer and closer to his subconscious plane. He blinked a few times in an attempt to keep a stable grip on his surroundings, but the flashing blackness only served to induce the opposite effect. As he drifted to unconscious rest, he heard one final voice speak out to him. It was equally as drifting as the others, but with one key difference. It was coming from _inside him_.

_**Wow**__, __**very impressive Uzumaki. If I didn't know better, I'd say you've got the Hokage position in the bag.**_

Naruto's face scrunched up into a frown before he finally passed out.

* * *

Shikamarus's eyes flickered, adjusting to the dark of the private room. The main area hadn't been well-lit, but this place literally had no illumination at all. He rifled around in his pockets, digging through them in hope of his hand hitting cardboard.

"Naruto got hit hard." He commented, continuing to riffle through his pockets.

"Whatever, he threw the first punch." Ino murmured back, clearly not that concerned with the Uzumaki's condition.

"First punch? He threw out the lightest slap imaginable and then the other guy went ape-shit."

"He still threw something."

"Yeah, not enough to justify knocking him the fuck out."

"Bullshit! He was totally asking for it!"

"What, because he- "Shikamaru's train of thought froze as he finally retrieved the small cardboard box he'd been looking for. In the face of this, he decided there were more important things to discuss then this. Afterall, they were running on limited time. "You know what? Forget it."

He flicked open the lid of the carboard, retrieving a small match and scraping it against the side of the box. A flame lit up on its end, small and slight but powerful enough that the Nara boy could just about make out Ino's facial features.

"Devils flare." She said, reading the tightly woven typography that was written on the front of the matchbox. Her expression suddenly became irritated at this. "Hey, those are cigarette matches. You stole those from Asuma-sensei, didn't you?"

"Yeah, so what? Looking back on it now, it was probably a good idea." He muttered.

Ino nodded in agreement. Her mind had become focused on trying to keep the conversation moving, so she didn't stop and ask _why_ Shikamaru had stolen the cigarette matches. Or maybe this was just because the answer to why he had _stolen cigarette matches_ was obvious.

"So, about that note? Are you messing with me or- "?

"I'm about 85% sure that the we fail if we don't get out of the room before that clock runs itself down." He cut her off.

Ino grimaced, her downtrodden expression expected when the security of the situation had been ripped out from underneath her.

"How do we get out then?"

"Dunno. Doors completely locked, so we probably need a key or something. I don't know if it's hidden around here or a few rooms over though. Maybe the ninja has it on him, which is why I needed to tell you." Shikamaru rambled, the implications of his words not being lost on Ino.

The Yamanaka girl frowned, shooting a questioning glance over to her teammate.

"You really want me to just bust out a body possession? We'd get caught."

"No, see, here's the plan- "

Shikamaru proceeded to launch into a detailed and analytical description of his plan, not realizing that for the second time that day, his actions were being recorded and watched by someone. Now, unlike the incident with the sharingan, this was by no fault of his laziness. He'd priorly made sure that the you couldn't hear from the bathroom, and kept his eye upon the tiny gap at the bottom of the door, making sure that no shadows lingered over it. The reason he got caught this time was far out of his control (especially in the dim lighting), but he still got caught nonetheless.

A group of bugs watched the pair from the safety of the celling, knowing full well that the ninja wouldn't be able to generate enough light to see them. Their tiny eyes would have glimmered if there was any lighting, but for now had to settle for simply taking in the information they were being given. Interestingly, this was similar to what Shino was doing from just outside the room. All he had to do was wait, and his bugs would relay every detail coming from the inside…

* * *

"What's your name?" Sakura asked.

"Naruto Uzumaki." He said back.

His voice was tinged with the slight awkwardness that came with Sakura stretching his eyelids outward. The girl was proceeding through the first-aid training Kakashi had taught them, making sure Naruto was not concussed or suffering from a similar injury. He'd only been out for a minute, but the fact remained that _he had been out_. If Neji had given him a bad head injury or something, it was for the best that Team Seven just call it a day and come back next year. Sasuke, Lee, Tenten and Hinata watched over Sakura's shoulder, observing as Naruto went through his motions of recovery.

"What team are you on?"

"Team Seven."

"Where are you right now?"

"The chunin exams. I just got shit-mixed by Neji Hyugo"

"Hyuga." Tenten quickly corrected, only to quickly apologize as she received a glare from everyone else.

That was, except Lee, who was too busy holding in his tears to do anything of note. He had not been able to "protect Naruto with his life" like he said he would, and was now about ready to unleash a tidal wave of sorrow onto the ground. Everyone else (even Hinata) couldn't help but find it a little bit over the top, and the fact that he seemed to be genuine in his emotions only made it worse.

"What's your goal?"

"To be the greatest hokage."

Sakura looked back at the group behind her, expression turning from analytical to lackadaisical.

"He's okay."

Lee jumped forward with enough force to physically blow the girl to the side, gripping around Naruto in an iron-clad hug. The Uzumaki swore he could nearly feel his eyes bulge out of his skull from the pressure, his intake of breath dropping drastically as the other boy gripped onto him.

"I'm so sorry Naruto! I promised to protect you with my life two times over, yet I couldn't even protect you _once_! What fellow ninja am I that I cannot even protect my comrade?!" He cried, tears running down his face like waterfalls.

"'s okay" Naruto replied, words barley being able to squeeze out from the crumpled mess that Lee's hug was making his insides.

Before the embrace could completely cut off all oxygen to his brain and really give him a concussion, Tenten grabbed a hold of Lee's collar and began dragging him away. His arms shot outward towards Naruto as he skidded along the ground, eyeline so tear-filled that it more closely resembled rippling ponds than anything than actual eyes.

"_I'm sorry Naruto!_"

"Come on dunderhead. Get off before he blacks out for the second time today." Tenten berated, treating Lee much like an owner did to an over-enthusiastic dog.

In the meanwhile, Sasuke and Hinata (two actually functioning humans) took their places in front of Naruto. Their expressions were polar opposites of each other, with Hinata's being nervous and concerned whereas Sasuke looked almost like he was about to laugh.

"How's your nose?" Sasuke asked, smirking as he did so.

Naruto looked up at him with a toothy grin, his first positive expression since getting into the argument with Neji.

"Alright."

"Good to know. I was pretty sure he broke it."

"Right?! Dude didn't hold back, that's for sure." He said, rubbing a hand over the injured spot in question.

His eyes suddenly switched focus from Sasuke to Hinata, though they didn't lose any humor as they did so. In fact, they might have gotten more jokey when they made that switch. This went a long way in calming Hinata, who up to that point had been practically hyperventilating. There was just something about the combination of Naruto's eyes and smile that were reassuring and, above all else, comforting.

"Hey, Hina-Hina, your cousin's a dick." He laughed, which actually managed to get a giggle out of Hinata as well. However, the Hyuga girl quickly turned serious when realizing that she may have been somewhat to blame for his current position.

"I'm s-so sorry N-Naruto, I s-should have- "

"No, no. It's my bad, I shouldn't have forgot your name…I also, ya know, probably shouldn't have slapped him." He said, still smiling. Soon after, he stood up to his feet and began walking towards a shelf. Then he paused. "I'm gonna go get a drink, you guys want anything?"

Sasuke and a now recovered Sakura shook their heads, while Hinata nodded.

"Well, I don't know what stuff they've got, so you're going to have to come with." Naruto said casually, beckoning the Hyuga girl to come with him. She quickly followed, though nervous jitters quivered through her steps much like the stutters in her voice.

Sakura watched the two with a sly smile, noting how different their posture was from one another. Hinata was shaky, looking like a breeze would be enough to send her toppling to the ground whereas Naruto solidly crossed his arms behind his head, almost as if he was anticipating that very breeze.

"Sakura."

Sasuke's voice came suddenly, lacking the jovial tone he had had when speaking to Naruto previously. Instead, he seemed very serious, eyes lingering over an event on the horizon that was seemingly invisible to everyone else.

"Hm?"

"I needed to talk with you in the private room."

"Oh, okay."

She was surprised by the request. When Niro had introduced the room, she had struggled to see the point and definitely hadn't thought she'd be going in at any point. The fact that Sasuke had somehow found a reason to use it, with her, sent her brain into an avalanche of theories and possible explanations. What could he have found out in the last few minutes that he couldn't risk saying out in the open? Maybe something about-

"_**I'm going stir-crazy!" **_

Ino's voice boomed out through the room as if she was shouting through a loudspeaker. Any attention in the room that had not been on her previously (which was most of it) was now specifically fixated upon her wailing figure. She had closed her eyes, draping the back of her hand over her forehead in an entirely over-dramatic fashion as she edged closer to door which they had entered from. The one that Niro stood on the other side of.

"_Oh! _The stress of these exams is way too much!" She screamed.

Her words were practically _dripping _with a rich theatric edge, her actions being closer to a stage actor than what you would expect of a person who actually had any reservations about the exam. It was almost contradictory in that sense, because someone who had gotten stressed out by this section of the exams would most definitely not be running up to the very front of the room and screaming about just _how_ stressed they were.

"Sorry Shika, sorry Choji! I just can't handle this anymore; we need to drop out."

Despite being told that his chances of moving up a rank were going to be dashed for what had to be one of the stupidest reasons possible, Choji just smiled a big dumb smile and flashed a thumbs up.

"That's okay Ino, we'll get it next time!"

This was followed by an incredibly uncomfortable silence. The words that had previously flown out of Ino's mouth with such spectacle and emotion were silenced completely. Much like a theatre performer, she had been snared by an actor who had forgotten his lines. Well, not forgotten his lines as much as forgotten he needed to say said lines in the first place. No better sound elucidated this fact then the sharp crack of Shikamaru's fingertips picking at his nails, consequently causing Ino to bite down into her cheek in an attempt to prevent a murderous glare from overtaking her features. Soon enough, she realized that Shikamaru was completely apathetic to a plan that he himself had organized and needed to be reminded of that. In a perfectly timed moment of comedy, she cleared her throat out, only earning a bored gaze from the boy in response.

"Do whatever you want, I don't care."

In all fairness, this was actually a pretty in-character response, so much so that for a brief second Ino thought that Shikamaru may have actually faked the plan so that he could drop out of the exams without actually having to be blamed for doing so. Then she realized that with what was supposed to happen next, it wouldn't have made sense. She snapped into position, gripping onto the doorknob like it was the only thing keeping her tethered to the land of the living.

_**Knock!**_

_**Knock!**_

She slammed her fist against the wood frame, hard enough that a few of the genin thought she was attempting to beat the door down.

"Ah, I'm feeling light-headed…" She groaned, adding the prescient for the next step.

The door slung open, Niro peering into the room with his beady brown eyes. His face was mostly obscured, the only visible parts being his eyes, nose and (partly) mouth but that was all Ino needed.

"What is it?" He asked, never getting an answer.

Ino made a small triangle with her hands, aiming it towards Niro's eyeline. Chakra began pulsating through her palms, manifesting outward in an invisible but deeply powerful force. It was too quick for the jonin to even notice, because by the time he looked down far enough to see Ino's hands, he already had lost consciousness. But when the word "lost" was used, it did not mean forsaken to fate unknown, but instead, his consciousness put in the hands of a specific owner. Ino's body hit the floor mere seconds after this bizarre interaction, a feat that everyone in the room owed to her light-headedness.

"Oh no, the girl has fallen ill." Niro stammered, not sounding quite like himself. "You there, ponytail boy. Please help her rest up."

He had motioned to Shikamaru, who "begrudgingly" followed the order (though what wasn't faked was was how lazily he dragged Ino over to the couch, nearly dropping her completely on multiple occasions.). Niro made one last perimeter check of the area before nodding his head slowly and closing the door. Except, the person who did this wasn't Niro at all. It may have been his body doing the actions, but there was a different mind behind the wheel.

_Ah! That was actually pretty easy. I can't stay in here too long though, or I'll drain myself completely by the time I'm back_ Ino thought as her wants and needs took full control of Niro's subconscious.

The Yamanaka clan had always specialized in the techniques of the mind and were revered for their various sensory techniques. The most prominent of these was the mind transfer jutsu, in which the Yamanka clan user would transfer their consciousness into the body of another. The targets mind would be suppressed for as long as the other persons thoughts occupied its space. However, there were many weaknesses to this technique. Firstly, as displayed before, Ino lost all mobility in her own body during this process, meaning she was a sitting duck in combat situations. Secondly, it was incredibly finnicky and hard to control. For a genin like Ino, even simple actions such as basic motor functions and movement were hard to control. This wasn't even taking into account the resistance that most shinobi had. From what she could tell, this guy's psychological endurance was pretty slack for a jonin and she could already feel her grip on his psychosis starting to slip. This meant she had to act quickly.

"Hey, strange seeing you so soon again huh Niro?" Hisume waved over to the "man", walking over with a freshly minted stack of papers in his arms.

_Shit! _Ino growled inwardly.

It was hard enough to keep this guy under her control while he was doing nothing, having to navigate through a conversation with some rando she didn't know the name of only exacerbated things. Wait, maybe she could use this to her advantage. Afterall, she didn't even know if Shikamaru was right in his thinking. She could try and confirm that at least.

"Hey- "Wait, what the fuck did boys call each other? "-dude, how are you going?"

Hisume shot her a strange look. Clearly Niro was not one to usually call others "dude". Luckily, he seemed to shrug it off, quickly smiling.

"Not great, this paperwork's killing me. How are those kids doing in there?" He quickly shifted the conversation forward, a curious glint present in his eye.

"Pretty good. I'm sure they've already figured out that you need to actually escape through the door on time if they want to pass, right?"

Once again, Hisume became weirded out by Niro's uncharacteristic behavior.

"Yeah, I'd assume you knew since you were stationed to work there and everything."

Noticeable beads of sweat began to run down the jonin's face, both as the body's natural reaction to a different mind occupying its top slot and also because Ino was now absolutely _sweating bullets, _even if she didn't have a physical form. She'd gotten the info she wanted, but had set the man's suspicions off one too many times.

"Are you okay?"

"No, I'm a…_**fucking**_ idiot and I need to go to the bathroom." (S)he stammered, Ino beginning to lose her grip upon the older man's consciousness.

She had, at most, a minute or two left before she lost any control over the man but she had yet to achieve her primary goal. She bolted off in search of the bathroom with zero care for Hisume's concerns. When she found it, she practically smashed through the door of the cubicle and began rifling around the man's pockets in search of the key Shikamaru had mentioned. It was in moments like these that she really began to despise the number of pockets the average ninja had. Seriously, did the chunin flak jacket really require this many pouches? There was literally nothing in them and these stupid straps _kept getting stuck_. She ran a finger under his tongue, coating it with spit in what was a futile attempt to try and excavate the key faster. If it even existed in the first place, he didn't have it on him…that was unless maybe it was down lower. She pat down around the pockets of his legs, still coming up blank on the location of the object, which left only one option: maybe he had inside pockets as well. After all, apparently every ninja in Konoha needed to be equipped with the storage space of a fridge, it wasn't like it was that silly of an idea. She managed to get his hand down his pants before a sensation not to dissimilar to that of having your hair pulled, except it was not just your hair. It was your **very subconscious being** yanked backwards. She always hated this part.

Ino's astral form began to disperse around her, thoughts and memories temporarily aligning with Niro's in a blur of consciousness that was too bright and heavy for either of them to possibly comprehend. The usually dreary, nearly-pitch black mindscape became filled with a blooming struggle for control, or more accurately, would have had Ino not relinquished the jutsu. The chances of her managing to further suppress the man's mind were slim and far above the capabilities of a genin Yamanaka like her. If she did attempt it, she ran a serious risk of causing permeant damage to his (or possibly her own) psyche, which would obviously be bad. An escape was the only option that made sense, and she decided to follow reason.

"Ah!" Niro came to with a slight scream, mind still fuzzy.

It took a little while for him to recover his general senses, the man using his left hand to massage through his hair. He peered down at his other, noticing, one, the wetness of his fingers and, two, the fact that his right had been stuffed down his pants. And he was in a bathroom cubicle...

A few sharp breaths later, Niro made a mental note to never tell anybody about what had happened here.

* * *

" _Eck!_" Ino exclaimed, teal eyes snapping open.

Upon regaining her bearings, her stunned expression quickly let go in favor of a more disappointed one. Naruto had gotten a crowd of four (five if you counted Sakura, who was playing a nurse) to gather around him when he'd been knocked out but all she got were Choji and Shikamaru? And out of those two, Choji was the only one who actually even cared?!

"Hey! Ino, are you okay?" Choji asked, legitimately seeming concerned for her health. She didn't bother showing the same level of emotion back, waving him off with a clearly dissatisfied pout.

"Yeah, I'm fine Choji."

"Cool." He said, flopping back onto the couch as he had before. For all of the boy's compassion, he was also rather uncaring after the peace had been reassured.

Her eyes darted sideways, looking at Shikamaru. The Nara boy wasn't at all concerned with her though, gaze locked towards the clock on the wall. She was about to make some sarcastically snide remark about being hurt that he wasn't worried, but her attention was quickly drawn to the same point of interest as his: the clock on the wall.

_Twenty-five minutes left_. Shikamaru mentally noted, before returning Ino's already fleeting look.

"No key?" He asked.

"No key." She nodded.

Damn it. He liked a good puzzle, but he more so _loved_ solving the puzzle early. It seemed that in this situation, the latter was off the table.


	25. The Rules Of Inference II

A sharp tisk stuck on the end of Kankuro's lips as he tepidly sipped his soda, the Suna boy quickly recoiling in disgust as he did so. This one was called "vibe" and judging by the illustration (and the big colored text on the label), it was grape flavored. It was also fucking disgusting and Kankuro was only drinking it for the sake of drinking it. He looked over at his brother, his only other companion now that Temari had excused herself to go talk to that Konoha boy, hoping to try and start some small talk.

"God, Konoha soda is so bad dude. Seriously, look at this shit- "He said, motioning to the back of the label.

Gaara was not even looking at him.

"Look at all that sugar. It's literally twenty-one percent sugar. Do you know how much sugar that is? It's like ten teaspoons. _Ten. _How are the people here not, like, overwhelmingly obese? Do they have- "

Gaara's head snapped around to face him, the suddenness of the movement derailing Kankuro's monologue.

"Cease your pointless rambling _Meticcia_. I do not wish to speak with you."

Kankuro had to bite his tongue at the insult. _Meticcia _meant "half-breed" in Sunanese, which stung as badly as the putrid Konoha sugar-water. His cooler head prevailed though, knowing it wasn't a good idea to try and insult Gaara when he was in one of his moods. Hell, it wasn't a good idea to insult Gaara _ever_. Kankuro mumbled something about "just wanting to make conversation" before beginning to nip at his soft drink once more. In doing so, he also happened to ignore the metallic whirring that was bouncing around the bottom of the can…

* * *

The beetles flew through the air, wings flickering in the steadily-approaching sunlight while they navigated through the morning breeze. Their small, glimmering eyes were set dead ahead at the top of the exam building, each beetle making sure to keep their lithe bodies in formation for better scouting purposes. As they overtook the rooftops, they began looking down in order to identify the building Shino was in. From there, they looked around in an attempt to find the location of the room over. This was not difficult, as its presence was punctuated by a massive glass skylight that nearly ran over the whole room. A cacophony of fluttering wings began to buzz through the air as the beetles flew towards it, careful to both stay in formation as well as avoid the attention of any ninja who may have been in the room already.

This concern however, was menial. The Aburame clan was renowned for their insect breeding programs, with each ninja carrying many types of bugs on them at all times. These ones were the "Kirameku", by far the clan's most utilized insect when it came to reconnaissance. They were tiny, with massive amounts of peripheral vision. While they had no real offensive options, they were also incredibly mobile as well as resistant to sunlight thanks to the exo-skeleton like armor that wrapped around their bodies. For a shinobi to see them would take incredible vision (a feat none of the ninjas in the halls were capable of producing seeing as they'd managed to sneak outside undetected), but the bugs were smart enough to not take even the slightest risk. They gently crawled towards the edges of the skylight, slowly peering into its confines.

As suspected, there were already genin in there, sitting in what looked like exam conditions. Not _chunin exam _conditions, but the traditional classroom arrangement with desks and stationery. A ninja with a long scar running across his face sat at the front of the room, posture stiffly unmoving. The room itself was surrounded by several doors, which looked strange when you accounted for the multiple levels of seating that it also had. One of these doors had been opened and from what they could see, it very closely resembled the same room Shino was in. If there was any doubt about the escape theory, it had died with this sight.

_Fwoosh. _

One bug's antennas twitched as it heard a wispy sound to it's right. It gently turned its head that way, trying to find its brethren that it had just seen standing there. However, that bug had apparently disappeared from view. In its place sat a small pile of sand.

* * *

"Wait, what?! We fail if we don't get out before the clock goes down?" Sakura nearly screamed, quickly being shushed by Sasuke.

Even from the solitude of the private room, he couldn't help but try and quiet her. In all fairness, she was rather loud when she was shocked, even if she had been attempting to whisper.

"I don't know for sure; I just saw Shikamaru writing about it. Maybe he's wrong but it does hold up under scrutiny. Why would they waste a "getting to know each other" segment on genin who mostly already do? In fact, why would they do it at all? There are better ways to build camaraderie as well as examine us." He whispered.

Sakura nodded, briefly thinking to herself before turning back to Sasuke.

"How do you think we get out then?" She asked.

"Maybe a key or something, I don't know. The door to the next rooms definitely locked so- "

The privacy of the _private _room seemed to be a guaranteed feature if you judged by its name. Unfortunately for Sasuke and Sakura, their conversation was the second one to occurs in this area that was also being eavesdropped on.

Tenten had noticed early on that the bathroom and "private" room had been placed ridiculously close together, probably less than half a meter apart in length. She'd preemptively drunk a soda and while it was no substitute for a glass, it was good enough. Walking into the bathroom only a few seconds after Sasuke and Sakura's private retreat, she noticed the shiny white tiling that had been layered upon the walls. It was a poor attempt to mask the bathrooms true intention, that being a private room in which one could listen in on the contents of the actual private room. See, Tenten wasn't stupid. Purely going off of street smarts she was easily the cleverest and most crafty of her teammates. The "just socialize" had seemed suspicious to her from the get-go, and this suspicion was only confirmed as the secrecy of the other genin began to intensify.

She grazed her finger over the tiling, wasting little thought over it's pristine finish. Instead, she was focused on its specifics.

_Marble tiles, white in color. Stuck loosely to the wall, maybe half an inch raised from it. _

A quick flick through her pockets brought forth a kunai. She flipped it over, holding the blunt part outward and began pressing down against the wall. As expected, after only a little bit of pressure, the marble began to crack, spilling to the ground like snowflakes in the winter while revealing a thing wood material where it once stood. With only a quick glance, Tenten was already sure she could straight up break through into the next room if she wanted. She retrieved her soda can, gently using the blunt side of the kunai to mold the inward-facing bottom into a brim before switching to the sharp end and cutting away the excess top to shape it more like a glass. Then, she pressed it up against the wooden section of the wall, soundwaves immediately beginning to relay into the metal and then her ears.

Sasuke and Sakura's conversation was heard in full.

* * *

Shikamaru clicked his knight into place, staring unflinchingly at the shogi board. He was playing against himself, as per usual. He'd easily beat Choji earlier, and Ino, who was more of a challenge, was too busy breaking into hysterics over not being able to find the key to be able to play. He checked up at the clock. Seventeen minutes left.

Shikamaru was a simple boy, no matter his intellect. He lived for three things which were his mothers cooking, shogi and sleep. He found playing against himself in the game incredibly relaxing yet also thought provoking. When you were thinking for two people, it became easy to domino yourself into a good idea. Unfortunately, he was coming up blank for the moment. Niro didn't have the key on him, which meant that the key was somewhere in this room. They would have to excavate the whole damn thing to find it, which would only serve to cause mass panic, which would lead to fights which would lead to a lot of teams potentially failing. In all fairness, this might actually help them if the Ino-Shika-Cho trio just stayed out of the way and let everyone else get escorted out of the room. But then the problem still remained, what if the key wasn't in the room at all? What if there was some different way that you were supposed to escape out of the door?

"Hey." A voice came from his back, prompting Shikamaru to chase after its source.

What he found was the Suna girl from earlier, the one with the black robes. She sat down at the seat adjacent to him before he could say anything in reply, cutely cupping her chin with her palm. Shikamaru tilted his head back straight to face her, nearly instinctively pulling his shogi board closer. Despite the fact that she was sitting on the opposite side of the table, she wasn't actually that far away. In fact, she was surprisingly close (which was more due to the small size of the table than anything).

"You're Shikamaru right?" She asked, with an offputtingly sly grin.

He didn't know how she knew his name, but also didn't care that much. The answer was likely to be something boring anyway, so he just played along with her in an attempt to make enough conversation that she'd be satisfied and leave.

"Yep."

"I'm- "

"Temari. I heard before." He mused; one eye focused on her while the other stayed transfixed on the shogi board.

"You play shogi a lot?" She asked, keeping the conversation going despite the Naras boy's previous occlusion.

"Nah. Only a little bit." He murmured back.

In his mind, Shikamaru told himself that he said this because he didn't want to give away too much information to a potential enemy. In reality, he just didn't want to seem like he was a total nerd in front of a cute girl.

"You want to have a game? I'm, like, the only one to play it Suna but I hear it's much more popular over here. Maybe you can teach me a few things, huh?" She winked with a coy smile.

Shikamaru froze up, brain kicking into overdrive in an attempt to get a response out before his irritation became visible. He didn't really have time to waste on a game of shogi right now, and could only agree if this girl was substantially bad enough at it that he could beat her quickly. From his estimations though, she didn't seem that intelligent. In fact, from the way she'd awkwardly introduced herself to him, she seemed a little bit airheaded. If he tried hard enough and she didn't stall her moves, he'd probably be able to lock her into tsume in a little over three minutes.

"Sure." He obliged, rounding up his placed pieces and putting them back in their respective positions.

Temari softly waved her hand, motioning him to start. He did as instructed, moving his pawn up one space in a feeling-out move. She responded in kind, though Shikamaru couldn't help but notice that her eyes were more on him than the board itself. The cat-like grin that she had previously wore was now gone in favor of a more "girlish" one that he couldn't help but feel was incredibly tacked on. She was also better at shogi than he had thought. Not to the point where she posed any real threat (her style was way too heavy on offense for that) but she did enough to keep him from sleepwalking himself to win like he normally did.

The clicks and clacks of the pieces on the boards remained the solitary sound between the two before Temari decided she wanted to speak.

"Are you enjoying the exams?" She asked.

"Not really. I think they're boring." Shikamaru replied, briefly looking up at the girl as to not seem rude.

Temari nervously looked to the side, blush adorning her features.

"Oh, y-yeah. I agree." She stammered, demeanor serving in stark contrast to the raw confidence she'd radiated earlier in the hall.

All in the while, they continued to play, game moving quickly as the wood chipped pieces shuffled through the board. However, Shikamaru had found himself off his game slightly. Was it possible that this girl…_liked him_? If you looked at it logically, the answer would be yes. She was blushing at the simplest of his glances as well as stammering at her own words (although this may have been a language barrier issue if she was one of those people who spoke Sunanese as their primary vernacular). It most likely wasn't anything more than a school yard thing, but judging from the way she'd approached him in particular (having specifically sought out his name before doing so), it wasn't that farfetched to think that she was at the very least attracted to him.

And in all honesty, he kinda returned these advances. She was definitely pretty and surprisingly cute in her mannerisms. Her voice dripped with a sunshine-quality that he once thought exclusive to the theater. Not to mention she was good at shogi, definitely better than anyone he'd played short of his father or Asuma-sensei. If she wasn't so aggressive in her playstyle, she may have actually been able to provide a challenge for him. As much as Shikamaru liked to regard himself as above the trials of the heart, he would be lying if he didn't say he noticed her as she smiled back at him. It was nothing more than surface-level attraction, obviously, but even that was a lot more attention than he gave most people in the first place.

"Hey, Shika- "She said, voice high-pitched as she further sat her face down against her palms.

She was definitely cute.

"I've heard this _crazy_ rumor about the exams…" She continued on, dark blue eyes sparkling even if the dim light of the area.

"Hm." Shikamaru nodded, moving his rook sideways to try and shield the attack from her bishop.

"Someone's been saying that if we don't get out before that clock goes down, _we all fail_."

Time froze in the Nara boy's head. He once again titled his gaze upward from the game, gently as to not alarm Temari at his sudden action. Her bubbly, "girly" gaze was, for that split-second, completely gone. Her glittering blues were now cold and mechanical as they looked at him, with her smile becoming less cutesy and more fiendish. It was an act. Shikamaru wanted to slap himself over the head in annoyance, not because of the dashing of his three second crush, but because he'd somehow stumbled into her trap when all it took was a bit of scrutiny to see through. The words of his father echoed through his head.

"_Always think with your brain Shikamaru, __**never**__ think with your dick…"_

He gently took hold of a shogi piece, attempting not to wither under Temari's gaze. If she was smart enough to think of the ploy she'd just incorporated, she was smart enough that Shikamaru would have to chose his next few words very carefully. Right now, he was at a disadvantaged state because the slightest mincing of his words would indicate that he had figured her initial ruse out. A concrete refutation of said rumor (E.g "that's stupid") would give him away instantly, as would any attempt to try and find the source of said information. God, he'd thought Temari was nice but really, she was a massive drag. Some might say, an _ultra-_drag or, if you wanted to go further, a drag among drags.

_Move the king one step to the side_.

He smoothly slid the shogi piece sideways, looking back at the Suna girl with the same tepid indifference he gave most problems.

"That'd be pretty clever actually."

"Oh, you think so?" Temari replied, once-again beginning to sugar coat her words.

This was hard to do when she was so obviously judging Shikamaru, so her natural husky tone had a habit of bleeding into her dialect. While her eyes may have been displaying the same childish femininity that were seen in romance manga, they were faker than a genjutsu, truly watching intently for any discrepancies in the Nara boy's features. She gripped her own shogi piece, moving it forward without ever taking her eyes off Shikamaru.

**Move the knight forward two spaces**_. _

"Yeah." He murmured, moving in time with her.

_Move the bishop diagonal, block the knight. _

Temari smiled as she watched her war of attrition begin to ware down Shikamaru's defense. She had no doubt that he could beat her if he had been trying, but he'd been taken so off-guard by her faux-interrogation, that he could barley focus on the game. This wasn't actually true, Shikamaru simply ceased to care about the game at all since one wrong word could give information to an enemy, but functionally, it made no difference.

"Maybe it's true?"

**Drop a lance. **

The way she spoke was cartoonishly lively that it only served to further confirm in Shikamaru's mind that Temari was attempting to bait him into giving away what he knew. He temporarily focused on the shogi game, realizing he may lose if his laxness kept up.

_Move pawn to the side, in front of another pawn which will block the lance. _

"Doubt it unless they want to wean out a majority of the genin before the tournament section even starts." He mumbled, watching her king with intent.

Strangely, Temari had been using her king offensively for a majority of the game. Shikamaru would've found it interesting if he wasn't caught in the middle of an elaborate ploy to try and sap info from him.

"Yeah, but apparently they always do this kind of thing during the exams. It's meant to mess with you."

**Move promoted Bishop to the side, take pawn. Set up silver general. **

"Could be." Shikamaru commented, eyes shooting downcast to underneath the table before flicking back up to the shogi board.

_Move pawn to try and block silver general with king gambit._

"Yeah. Maybe there's something that we need to find."

**Move sliver general diagonal, take one of his gold generals. **

"Like a key?"

_Move bishop to the side. Bait_.

"I didn't say key."

**Take bishop with silver general, open up king completely. **

Temari smirked, thinking she'd fully bested Shikamaru at both shogi and her interrogation. Any move he made now would open up his king to be taken by her bishop. He had no drop reserves that could do much more than delay the inevitable meaning she'd won. She was also interested in seeing how exactly he managed to weasel out of the verbal blunder he'd stumbled into. In truth, she hadn't even planned for him to say "like a key?". She'd actually expected both the spoken gridlock and shogi game to go longer, but instead, he'd trapped himself in the most simply way possible. A shame, she may have overestimated him.

However, when Shikamaru looked back up at her, there was not even the most trace lingering of defeat in his eyes. Instead he looked bored.

"You lose." He said, taking his gold general and swiping her king off the board.

Her eyes expanded in shock, taking a little bit to formulate what had just happened. She'd had him open completely! On the next move there was no way for him to maneuver the king out of harm's way. It was-

"You got so obsessed with using your king offensively that you didn't even remember I'd moved my gold general into your rear lines earlier. You could have probably got him with a rook too, if you'd noticed." He looked up at her, unimpressed. "You really need to watch your back."

Temari had to practically crack her teeth to keep her rosey smile upturned.

"Right. That was…totally stupid." She said, accidentally letting anger flood into her voice despite the obvious attempt to try and keep her façade up.

"And I'll tell you something else…" Shikamaru continued, folding his hands over each other.

It was at this moment that Temari ceased to have any feeling in her legs. It felt like something had gripped her ankle and then just nothing. She couldn't even stand up; her lower body was entirely numb. For that matter, she could barley see under the table because its shadow was _so _dark (plus it didn't help that her clothes were black).

_Is he doing this? _She asked, attempting in vain to get a grip on her autonomy.

"…I know that we fail if we don't get out in time, and if we do, I'll be kind of happy. No one in this room has a chance of making chunin, certainly not me in particular. I'm already starting to get sleepy, so I'd like nothing more than to be dismissed early enough that I can make it back home for an afternoon nap."

Temari grimaced as the Nara boy monologed, realizing she'd somehow fallen into his trap. She was no longer trying to mask her true intentions, any cheerfulness fading from her expression while she struggled to move. She could try to make a fuss about this (she had no doubt both Gaara and Kankuro could kick this guys ass) but her objections had to be halted when she remembered that Gaara had been getting rather anxious. He'd be eager to kill Shikamaru outright, which would at best, put a massive amount of scrutiny on the Suna siblings for the future, and at worst, mean they fail the exam outright as it would seem unprovoked. No matter what, they _needed_ to get to the finals, so this was essentially out of the question.

"So, would you like another game?" Shikamaru asked out of the blue.

There was a slightly smug smile stuck to his lips, similar to the one Temari usually wore. She took a brief second to look over both him and the board, giving a harsh scowl before beginning to place her units back in their intended position. Maybe she could at least try and get some more information out of him while she was stuck here…

* * *

"What?! We _**fail **_if we don't get out?!" Kiba barked, the anger in his face reflecting upon Akamaru.

"Yes." Shino said, bluntly.

"Oh, what the fuck!" The Inuzuka growled, slapping himself over his forehead.

Hinata nervously sipped at her drink while her friend descended into hysteria. At first, she'd been peeved that Shino's information had dragged her away from her conversation with Naruto, but now she was more concerned about, ya know, _failing the entire chunin exam in the first round_.

"M-maybe it's like a s-scavenger hunt and we can find our way out with a key or something l-like that?" She suggested, earning a slight nod from Shino.

"That's likely. Why? Because if they locked us into a room with-"

"Yeah, yeah, whatever. I'm on it." Kiba interrupted, recovering from his anger in record time.

He and Akamaru stormed off towards the main door, sharply knocking on it twice. Its frame was thrust open only slightly, a small slit of light radiating into the room.

"What is it?" Niro asked, unwilling to show anything more than a tiny section of his face after what had happened when Ino had knocked.

Luckily, this was all Kiba needed, holding Akamaru's face up to the doors gap. He mumbled something about needing to go to the bathroom and was quickly redirected to the bathroom that was actually in the room he was supposed to be in. The door shut, a large smile adorning Kiba's face as he returned. Judging by his friend's reactions, they didn't have the faintest idea of why he'd done that, so he took it upon himself to elucidate it for them.

"We've got his scent. If he hid something, it should still smell like him right?"

"Ah! Good job Kiba!" Hinata exclaimed, face brightening while Shino nodded in agreement

Kiba placed Akamaru down on the floor, the white pup immediately setting its nose upon the ground and beginning to scurry off with a sharp bark. He himself raised his nose upwards, taking in the smells of the room and trying to discern Niro's own from the rest. This was tough. Smells could be hard to discern in the first place and the fact that there were so many people crammed into the room meant Kiba had his work cut out for him trying to properly differentiate them. Between the material of Naruto's jacket, Ino's perfume, leftover cigarette smoke from Shikamaru and metric fuck ton of styling gel that had been put into Lee's hair, Kiba's nose nearly became completely overwhelmed. That was until he hit it.

It may not have been Niro's exactly. The jonin man was generally well washed so attempting to differentiate it from the crowd was hard, but with his enhance sense of smell, Kiba could at the very least read something that smelled similar.

"I think I've got him." He happily growled, dashing along the trail of the aroma.

* * *

There was a distinctive energy, which some people may have called "panic", that was spreading around the room like a virus. At this point, every team had become informed about the true nature of the room and were reacting like you would expect when you had just been told the most important academic event of your life was about to become forfeit to a scavenger hunt scheme.

"Hey, coming through!"

Naruto barged past Ino, earning a loud snarl from the Yamanaka girl.

"_Watch it!_"

In the meanwhile, Tenten had stationed herself at the head of the room, using one of her hair pins to pick away at the lock. Neji stood to her side, eyes veiny and pulsating with ocular ability. He scanned over the area, seeing through every possible blockage and obstruction. This was the power of the Hyuga dojutsu: the byakugan. The user of this jutsu could see through any wall with increased visual fidelity and field of vision. In comparison to the sharingan, which primarily enhanced the users focus and reflexes due to its accuracy, the byakugan gave its wielder a massive scope of their surrounding area.

Nevertheless, Neji could not spot any sort of key or object hidden away that seemed out of the ordinary.

"There doesn't seem to be a key anywhere." He said.

"Try looking harder." Tenten bluntly replied, clearly more focused upon cracking the lock herself than doing so with the aid of a key.

Neji didn't listen to her direction, instead deciding to continue leaning against the wall. He was still young and his byakugan wasn't even close to being nearly mastered. While something significant may have been detected, it was entirely possible that an object as small as the key likely was (judging by the keyhole on the door) could've stayed concealed. It was around the time that Naruto charged past an unexpecting Lee, that he began to laugh once more.

"What on earth are you doing?" He asked, as Naruto ruffled through a shelf.

"Let it go Neji." Tenten murmured, though her voice was slight.

Upon practically ridding the thing of all it's wares, Naruto turned back to the Hyuga boy with a pout on his face.

"Looking for the key to help us pass, which you probably don't even know about because you're stupid." Naruto said, acting like an authority on the subject despite the fact he'd only learnt about said key from Sasuke in the last two minutes.

"Oh, I know about it and honestly, I'm not worried now that you're on the case Naruto." Neji scoffed, looking down at the other boy with distain.

Naruto gave a groan of aggravation before turning to Neji with a look of complete exacerbation.

"Oh, shut the fuck up dud branch, at least I'm doing _something _unlike you."

Neji froze, a cold, blistering anger beginning to radiate out from every possible inch of him. He was not concerned about Naruto's false claim that he done nothing, no. It was the nickname he'd been given that had really set his blood to boil.

"What did you call me?" He asked softly

"You heard me **dud branch**." Naruto said back, smiling slightly now that he'd actually managed to get a reaction out of Neji.

Well, maybe a little bit more than just a reaction. Neji charged forwards, pure bloodlust roaring through his eyes. He moved so quickly; Naruto didn't even have a chance to jump out of the way. By the time he'd realized Neji was even moving, the Hyuga boy was already in striking distance. A bone-shattering palm crashed into Naruto's nose, dropping him to the floor with force. Neji leapt forward, intending to beat Naruto into a vetitive state before the Uzumaki exploded into a cloud of smoke. With his hands suddenly gripping the floor instead of his foe, Neji began looking around, eventually finding (the real) Naruto, Sasuke and Sakura clearing out another shelf in search of a key.

Naruto was smugly smiling to himself, watching from the corner of his eye. Embarrassment began to overtake Neji, overriding the wave of anger he'd previously been riding upon. He stood up, cleaning any muck off of his shirt before walking back over to Tenten. A conscious effort was made to try and keep the sound of Naruto's laughter on mute for the time being.

"Dud branch is a good one." Sasuke said, half-watching Neji's detected stride.

"You think so?" Naruto said back between giggles.

"You know Naruto, sometimes you swing and miss but with that one you really hit it out of the park." Sakura complimented sweetly, before her face became cartoonishly angered. "_Now start emptying those cans a little bit faster!_"

He recoiled at her sudden anger, doing exactly as she said with a nervous smile. The theory was positively crackpot, but with every couch cushion being uprooted, it was really one of the only available options. The hypothesis was that the key had been hidden in a can of soda, much like a promotional ticket of some sort, which meant Team Seven was now grabbing the drinks off of the shelves and pouring them onto the ground. Other teams had similar ideas (Ino was in the process of slicing the couch cushions open) but, expectedly, they'd not been able to find anything notable except a dead fly (which Naruto had then tried to stuff into the keyhole to no effect).

While the general air between the three was positive, there was a general unease around the room. Fifteen minutes left and no sign of the key did not bode well for anyone's chunin exam chances. It would've been a little bit less disheartening if they had simply lost in combat or something like that, because that meant there was genuine room for improvement. Here, they were literally about to lose because they couldn't open a door. Increasingly bright flashes of self-doubt embedded themselves within the mind of the three genin.

_Oh god, mum's gonna kill me if I don't make it to at least the second segment! _Sakura flinched inwardly.

_He passed it on the first try_. Sasuke thought.

Naruto just bit his lip, trying to suppress the feelings before they could fully get a foothold in his brain. If he failed here, all the work he'd done over the past few months, hell, past few years of his life, still wouldn't be enough to even let him pass the first damn stage.

He nearly crushed a soda can in his hand, continuing to pour them onto the floor. No matter what, he couldn't give up until the time was completely depleted.

* * *

With seven minutes left, the time crunch was truly punctuated and with it, came mass hysteria. Each teams lead had come up blank in crushing fashion. Team Seven had poured out every can of soda (aside from the one Kankuro was currently drinking) and each one had been empty, Tenten had broken both of her hair pins in an attempt to crack the lock open and Kiba's smell trail had just led him to the main door. In a surprising display of unity, the genin had all teamed up to try and beat the door down physically but it was so sturdy that this proved to be nothing more than an effort in futility.

"I volunteer as a sacrifice so that you can all go onward! The flames of youth will burn brighter without me than if we all fail!" Lee cried dramatically, which only exacerbated Tenten.

"That's not how it works Lee." She practically growled back; hair buns having been placed back into position with the aide of two cracked match sticks.

_**BANG!**_

"Again!" Naruto screamed, smashing back against the door that lead to the next stage.

Sasuke, Sakura and a group of two shadow clones had chosen the strategy of attempting to use him as a human cannonball to try and smash the door down with. In the five times they'd executed this plan, all they'd really achieved was hurting Naruto's back and making a lot of loud noise. Around the eighth time they'd done it, Sasuke realized that this was not helping in the slightest.

"Okay, stop. This isn't doing anything." He growled, stepping away from the group as the clones dispersed.

"Yo Sasuke, blow it down with a fireball!" Naruto yelled, which was actually a decently valid suggestion (at least, compared to the other dozen or so times Naruto suggested Sasuke blow something down with a fireball, which was usually just because he liked the way it looked).

Sasuke gave it some thought, before shaking his head solemnly.

"No, a fireball doesn't actually have that much kinetic impact. At least, not enough to impact a durable metal door like that. The only way I could maybe get it down is if I tried to expand the ball inches away from the door but then I'd probably burn my face off, which I don't want to do."

"Well, teach the jutsu to one of my clones then!" Naruto suggested, not able to realize how dumb the idea was in the heat of the moment.

"It took me six months to learn that jutsu." Sasuke yelled back, beginning to become frustrated by Naruto's antics.

"Yeah, when you were, like, eight. I'm thirteen so I can probably do it in half of that time!"

"That's three months and we have _**seven minutes!**_" Sasuke shouted.

* * *

_Click._

_**Clack.**_

_Click. _

_**Clack.**_

_Click._

"Tsume." Shikamaru said, placing his rook to the side of Temari's king.

He looked up at her, unimpressed at being able to exploit the same mistake he'd used to win during the previous games they'd played. Temari just looked bored. She'd quickly realized she had no leverage in the situation, not even knowing why she was confined to the chair. This meant that she had to sit still and wind down the clock with Shikamaru, who was unwilling to talk at any length above one-word answers. Despite the chaos that was blistering around them, he just seemed dead-set on playing shogi.

"You keep charging forward with no plan for what comes after. In the short term, you might be able to push me backward, but you're flubbing your defense. Again, you need to watch your back more."

Temari glared at him, before sarcastically mouthing "thanks" in a way that made it clear she wasn't at all thankful for his advice. However, as she felt the movement resume back into her legs, she was at the least taken off-guard.

"You want to play another game?" He asked, feigning ignorance to her plight.

Temari quickly recovered from her shock, shaking her legs awake before standing up. She continued glaring at Shikamaru, not at all amused by the boy's antics.

"I think I've played enough shogi for today." She said, beginning to walk away

In all honesty, Shikamaru was somewhat sad to see her leave. Even in her interrogation, she'd made for more stimulating conversation then practically anyone he'd met in Konoha. If you took away the fact that she'd only been communicating with him to try and fish information out of him, she was actually pretty cool. As she strode away from him, Temari couldn't help but feel the same way. He may have been lazy and conceited but when her only real company in the exams were an insufferable loser and a cationic weirdo, Shikamaru didn't seem that bad…aside from fact that _he just used some sort of paralyzing jutsu to keep her from passing the chunin exams. _Yeah, actually fuck Shikamaru.

"_Shikamaru!" _A crazed voice screamed at him, snapping both ninjas out of their thoughts and reallocating the Nara boy's attention upon a different blonde.

Ino stormed over to him, Choji in toe. She gripped onto his collar with a surprising level of physical strength, anger bubbling so hotly in her eyes they were essentially pure white.

"Tell me you got some info out of that bitch!"

Shikamaru took a moment to catch his breath after his clothes were suddenly yanked upon before shuffling back to his usual deadpan look.

"I found out she was good at shogi." He mumbled, quickly being discarded by the raving Yamanaka girl.

"Oh, you're so selfish!" Ino whined, melodramatically thrusting her hands over her eyes. "You couldn't have tried a little bit harder to try and get us out? Now me and Choji's dreams are _dashed _because you can only think about yourself!"

"Actually, I had a good time! I ate tons of snacks, I met tons of people, I-" Choji added with a bright smile, only to be immediately cut-off.

"Oh, shut the fuck up fat-ass!" Ino growled, temporarily redirecting her anger towards the larger boy.

"Okay." Choji replied, smile not fading despite the abuse that was being thrown at him.

Ino's jagged eyes quickly turned back to Shikamaru, arm thrusting out to transmit his attention back to the other genin.

"Look! People are going crazy Shika and I'm going crazy too! We could've been the ones _not _going crazy but instead you doomed us to wilting damnation with the rest of these looneys!"

Despite the massive amount of hyperbole that had been injected within her statement, Ino was actually right about the other genin going crazy. Kiba was growling to himself, sniffing like a drug addict two days after a binge while Hinata just watched in nervous silence.

"How much does this motherfucker bathe?! Like seriously, I can't get a damn read on his scent! Or maybe it's because everyone in this room fucking stinks like shit and it's hiding it!" He roared, oblivious to the fact that he was the worst smelling person in the room by an absurdly massive margin.

Shino, in the meanwhile, was desperately opening different tubes that he'd strapped on himself, attempting to find _some _insect that would help with the breaking down of the door. Judging by just how many different things he was opening; this was not going to happen anytime soon.

Naruto was pacing around the room while Sasuke and Sakura huddled together on the floor, trying to devise a plan. Sakura was deathly pail, while Sasuke was coldly analytic, chanting some indiscernible gibberish to himself.

"You got an idea yet?" Naruto asked, briefly pausing his wandering as he passed the pair.

"For the seventh fucking time, _**no! **__I don't have a fucking idea yet Naruto because I would tell you if I did!_" Sasuke exploded, lashing his arms backwards.

Upon seeing Naruto's face fall, he quickly stiffened up, eyes shooting back downcast.

"Sorry. Just let me think, okay?"

Naruto nodded, restarting his half-a-meter patrolling lap of the room.

_**DING!**_

_**DING!**_

_**DING!**_

"Attention! _Attention._" Lee's voice rung out, slapping a match stick against a soda can like makeshift drum.

Everyone's focus stuck to him and Tenten, who was now standing upon a chair with Lee by her side. The way the two were standing closely resembled what you'd expect from some fanatical and crazy authoritarian regime. The fact that one of Tenten's hair buns was now sagging across her features because she'd gifted Lee one of her makeshift match pins to use as his improvised drumstick didn't help. What also didn't help was how she slowly held up an explosive tag.

"Everyone get to the back of the room! I'm going to blow the door down with an explosive tag and if you don't get out of the way, I can't guarantee that you're not gonna get caught in the crossfire."

Surprisingly, out of everyone in the room, it was her own teammate that was the first to call her out on this idea.

"Tenten, please, this is ridiculous." He scoffed, which only fanned the flames of mania that were burning in her eyes.

"Neji, get back or I swear to god- "

She didn't finish her threat, letting the silence do the talking. However, in Neji Hyuga's opinion silence was a piss-poor speaker. He shrugged his arms back, looking at her with a tepid glare.

"I'm not moving."

"**Then get blown up bitch!**" Tenten screamed, the intensity in her voice quickly making Neji walk back (literally and figuratively) on his previous statement.

Tenten quickly looked back at the clock. There were two minutes left which meant even the most forgivable of errors could screw her up completley. She leapt forwards, rushing towards the door and beginning to prepare the tag. It was truly crazy; she didn't even know if the tag was powerful enough to blow the door in but she was attempting to do so with an amount of desperation that was palpable to everyone in the room.

"Okay, _check the seal_, implode upon trigger set by the- "She began mumbling through her words at a speed that was fast even for her.

Temari and Kankuro both looked on, silently praying that she was successfully able to get the explosion ready. They were _entrusted_ with the task. To disgrace the village by flunking out in the first round…oh god, they didn't even want to think about how angry father would be.

"This is tiring."

Gaara's words snapped their attention to him, both siblings being thoroughly surprised to see their brother, for one, stand up and for seconds, walk over to the door where Tenten was about to lay the tag. His sudden presence earned the girls focus as well, her erratic eyes gently fixating on him.

"Move." He said simply.

"What, are you crazy?! This is the last chance _any_ of us have of passing. Even if only one team is allowed to go through don't you think- "

_**FWOOSH!**_

Out of nowhere, a stream of sand exploded out of Gaara's gourd. It shifted around in the air with such liveliness that it nearly seemed sentient, before redirecting itself towards Tenten with absolutely blitzing speed. Before she was even able to see it coming, the sand had somehow gripped onto Tenten and flung her sideways like a ragdoll.

"_Ah!_" She exclaimed, crashing onto the floor with a loud _**thump**_.

"_Tenten!_" Lee yelled, running forwards.

He immediately rushed over to her, making sure she hadn't suffered any injuries. She quickly managed to get back to her feet, eyes clashing with Gaara's in a much more ominous context then they had before. The Suna boy seemed to care little for her well-being, ignoring her glare completely.

"I said move." Was all he said in response, before turning towards the door fully.

_**BAM!**_

His sand smashed against the entryway, throwing it off it's hinges like it was made of nothing more than pillow fluff. The sound of it smashing against the ground brought forth a sudden silence between the twelve genin. Their brains couldn't comprehend the sudden switch. Before, it had been a sure thing they would fail, this fact being cemented by the presence of this hulking blockage in their path. Now, Gaara had just disposed off this blockage like one might do to a garbage bag, showing complete indifference in the process. The sound of footsteps echoed out of the bright opening, soon being paired with the appearance of an ashen haired ninja, presumably chunin or jonin level.

"Hoho! You guys were cutting it close huh? Hey Ibiki! We've got another passing room." He said, flashing the group a bright smile before calling backwards.

With him came a burst of light from the room to his back, illuminating the slow crawl of the realization. A majority of the genin didn't get it at first, standing and sitting in still silence. It was only after the older ninja noticed this that they were told flat out what had just happened.

"Yeah, you guy's past the first stage."

A few seconds past.

A wave of cheer _**erupted **_among the ninja, sudden rushes of dopamine exploding into their mines with a suddenness that some couldn't react to in time. Sasuke was one of those, so sure of their inevitable defeat that the presence of victory had left him stunned and shocked while he sat on the ground.

"We…passed?" He asked to nobody in particular.

"_We passed!_" Sakura's voice boomed into his ears as she suddenly clung onto his side.

He didn't even really have time to process this before he realized _Sakura_ _was smothering him in a hug_. A flush ran over his face, as would have Sakura's if she was moving on anything more than instinct at this point. She didn't even realize she was hugging Sasuke, her brain was so overwhelmed with happiness.

"_**YES! **__We did it!_" Naruto screamed, dogpiling into Sasuke's back.

The Uchiha's predispositions meant that he initially tried to escape from the group hug, but, in an uncharacteristic move, he quickly accepted it and flung his arms around both Naruto and Sakura. The hug was imbued with a feeling he hadn't felt since before the massacre. It felt…_nice_ to have it back.

"Okay you guys, settle down. It's only the second stage." The ninja at the door said.

He wasn't only talking to Team Seven when he said this. Most of the other teams were celebrating with similar fanfare, most notably Kiba practically locking Hinata in a chokehold of a hug (he would've got Shino too had the Aburame boy not been adept at sneaking away from said affections).

As the rush of adrenaline wore off, the genin began packing into the next room, eager to start the next phase of the exam. The last remaining in the room were the Suna trio, of which Temari was giving Gaara a strange look. Due to his…_tendencies_, she did not normally call her brother out on things and accepted his eccentricities for what they were. However, with the amount of worry he could've avoided her had he just smashed the door down as soon as he was aware of the locked-room challenge, she felt she deserved an explanation.

"Gaara, why the hell didn't you just do that earlier?" She scolded.

Gaara stayed typically solemn for a few seconds before a slight grin broke out on his face. Now, normally, this would be a cute thing to do but Gaara's smile was ugly. It was less of a smile and more of him just folding his lips over themselves in a display of cruel arrogance.

"I thought it was funny." Was all he said before turning his back to her and walking out of the room.

There was something about his cadence that send a chill down Temari's spine, cold enough to keep her standing still for a few seconds.

"_Oh shit!_'

She turned back suddenly, noting Kankuro's sudden outburst. What she found was her brother spitting out a small, bronze key that he had nearly swallowed with the last gulp of his soda.


	26. Ten Questions: The Written Exam

The ecstasy that was bouncing around the Konoha (and suna) teams as they entered the exam room was quickly snuffed out like a candle. The room was large and long, with multiple tiers of seating each containing a row of desks much like you would find in a typical classroom. A large skylight took up a majority of the ceiling, streams of emerging sun cascading through its confines and illuminating the room (which served as a stark contrast between this area and the previous). A ninja with a set of worn face scars and trailing black trench coat. His gaze was steely and fixed, piercing eyes staying put in one position no matter what emotion he was feeling. His face was wrinkled, not to the point that it made him seem particularly old but it was clear he was starting to age. Judging by the divots around his cheeks, Sasuke guessed he was between his mid-30s and early 40s.

"Quiet. From now on, I want everybody in this room to be silent. Anyone who proceeds to speak will instantly fail the exam."

His words were clear, slashing down any semblance of chatter that lingered throughout the room. Well, maybe most of the chatter. Some of the genin didn't get the memo.

"_Oh_, what?!" One brown haired boy called out in anger, before promptly slapping his hands over his mouth in an attempt to try and keep the words in.

It was too late however. The proctor motioned to him, marking him and his group as forfeit to the chunin that had been orbiting the sides of the desk. Despite much struggling, the three were pulled out of the room, amounting to nothing more than an example for the rules.

"I am Ibiki Morino, head of the K.I.F. Does anyone know what that stands for?" He asked.

A spectacled boy with a round head shot his hand up, obviously _chomping at the bit _to answer the question. Naruto guessed that even in the chunin exam you still had those types of people…

"Oh! Oh! I know. It's the Konoha Interrogation Force." He said, the camo coloring of his headband implying that he knew a great deal about this subject.

"Correct. You also spoke, so you fail." Ibiki said, dashing the genin's dreams so casually, his team briefly thought it was a joke.

Then the chunin began dragging them away.

"To recap, I am the head of the K.I.F and a Tokubetsu Jonin, which is a rank attained by ninja's who are adept in categories above even a regular jonin. I have wartime experience dating back to the leaf/mist conflict. Today, I will be guiding you through the second stage of the chunin exams." He explained, ignoring the cries of the genin he'd just ejected as he did so.

"Now, let's start with the rules. This stage will consist of a written exam of ten questions. You will have one hour to finish these questions, though the tenth will be locked off until the last fifteen minutes of the test." Ibiki elucidated, motioning for the chunin to begin handing out small slips of paper. "The sentinels are currently handing out numbers. These will decide where you sit."

The genin were navigated to their seats, each one of them trying to hide their terror. Primary amongst these was Naruto who, while wearing a bright grin outwardly, was inwardly shitting himself.

_A written exam?! What is this, the fourth grade? I'm not ready for a written exam, I couldn't even pass the one at the genin tests!_

Sure, in his time as a ninja, he'd endured a lot worse than an hour-long pop quiz but at the same time, If Zabuza and Ookami had been asking him to explain the basic law of gravity he still wouldn't have been able to answer them. Luckily, he got seated next to Sasuke, so maybe he'd be able to sticky beak his answers. To his right was a tall (obviously older) Konoha boy with black-rimmed, round glasses. His ashy-grey hair was tied up in a neat ponytail while he wore a dark purple shirt with a wide, yet low collar. His mouth titled up into a small smile, humming something as he tapped his fingers against his desk in rhythm. He looked almost comfortable, lounging around the table much like one would do in the privacy of their own home.

Sasuke stayed focused in the meanwhile. He was next to Naruto, which was nice (even if he was certain that the Uzumaki boy was going to immediately ask if he could cheat off him) but not Sakura. She was several row down from the pair, meaning Sasuke suspected that they had been sorted at random. Hinata was at his side, nervously hiding the bottom of her face within her collar. He suspected she wasn't completely calmed down from the events of the pervious segment and honestly, neither was he. His eyes darted around, looking for anything that could be set-up against them like the last room had. He found nothing of the sort for now, probably because of all the genin that were still being seated.

The hall was very large, more closely resembling an auditorium then the tighter, if still spaced, confines of the earlier room. He immediately noticed some of the stranger looking genin, primarily the ones from the Sound Village. Now, he didn't know much about the Sound Village, but from what he could tell, everyone there apparently had a life-threatening illness because all of them looked injured in some way. The first boy that caught his eye had his head covered in bandages, a large bundle of fur clinging to the back of his coat. His too-long sleeves dripped down far over the point of his hands, making Sasuke wonder how much time he'd waste just rolling them up so he could hold a pencil.

The second was also a boy whose forehead protector connected to a twin stretch of headgear. This trailed down to a breathing apparatus that covered his mouth, resembling a gas-mask in its shape. His neck was covered by a black and white scarf and he wore a long-sleeved tan top with red symbols printed onto it. A few rows over from him was a girl with long black hair that flowed down her back like a waterfall. She was dressed in clothes that resembled an ANBU trainee, clasped hands revealing mosaic scars that trailed in-between her knuckles.

Sasuke's eyes returned back to the front of the room. Most of the genin had been properly seated at this point, giving him a better view of the room's specifics. With the length of the desks across it, Sasuke doubted that the chunin patrolling the sides of the area really had that good of a vantage point over them. There was only eight or nine of them, which seemed like a lot, but even if they spread out over the room in the best possible formation, he doubted they'd even be able to stop half of the genin from eagle-eyeing other's sheets.

"Eyes up front." Ibiki said, grasping the rooms attention and directing it upwards at the blackboard.

He pulled out a piece of chalk, writing as he talked while the chunin walked up and down the rows handing out the exam sheets. They were covered in blue plastic cases that obscured their contents, each casing having "do not open until test begins" printed on them in bright red letters.

"Let's go through the rules. Firstly, for each question you get right, you will score one point. Your total score will be decided by the number of points all three of your teammates get. That means even if two of you get all ten questions right, but one gets only five correct than you will not have a perfect score."

Naruto's gaze stayed fixed on Ibiki, but even when blind to the other two, he could almost feel their thoughts becoming fixated upon him. Others had similar reactions. Neji scoffed, Ino groaned and Shino tilted his glasses. The rest stayed silent.

"Secondly: for any genin caught cheating, **a point will be docked from their personal score**. If you are caught cheating five times, you and your team will be failed."

_Hm?_ Shikamaru, who had previously been disinterested in what the man had been saying, suddenly listened up. Similar reactions became apparent in the sharper genin.

"Thirdly, the only tools you are permitted to use will be your supplied pencils, erasers and protractors. If you are seen holding a tool of any other kind it will be classified as cheating."

Sakura clasped her hands together, attempting to quickly gauge her situation before Ibiki could talk again and she could miss something. Her surroundings were decently in her favor. To her right was Choji, who, even in the worst-case scenario, was too nice to snitch on her should she try and cheat off someone else's test. To her left was Tenten, who Sakura suspected she was friendly enough with that she may have even been able to willingly get some answers off of her. That being said, she may not have even had to cheat in the first place depending on the challenge of the test. The real issue in her mind, was the scoring system.

_I'll probably do fine and Sasuke should get high marks, but Naruto- _

The distinct memory of the boy using fingers to count his six times tables flashed through her mind.

_Well, even if he gets a zero, we should be fine. _

"Lastly, if any member of a team gets a zero, that team will be instantly failed."

_Fuck. _

Ibiki pulled the seat out from his own (larger) desk, eyes remaining cold and absorbed within the confines of the exam room.

"Are there any questions?"

No hands went up.

"You will be permitted to talk for this section of the exam."

Two hands went up.

"You, the blonde girl to the back." He said, pointing at Ino.

"What's the minimum score we need to pass?" She asked.

"You'll find out." He said back blankly.

She remained composed on the outside, though her eye began twitching. This was reflective of her inward mental state, which was currently moaning and groaning for a number of reasons that grew greater the longer the rant went on.

_Oh god, if this guys a super-duper jonin and this useless, imagine how useless most chunin are. I don't even know why I'm bothering, especially when I'm behind Sakura. I can barley see the front of the stage with her big fucking forehead in the way. This must be how Shika feels whenever he complains-_

Ibiki pointed to the next questioner.

"You, with the glasses." He said, jutting his attention towards Shino.

"Are we allowed to use the bathroom during the exam?" The Aburame boy asked.

"Yes." Ibiki responded, motioning to the door that sat at the lower levels at the back of the room. "It's through that door and to the left. Anything else."

No other hands went up. Seeing this, Ibiki reached into his drawer and pulled out a small silver timer. It was stained and rickety, looking similar to something you'd find in a second-hand shop but with the amount of tension in the air that was dispersed when he pulled it out, you'd sworn he'd just placed down a bomb. The creaking sound he made as he wound it up did nothing to alleviate this.

"This timer will go off when it's time for you to answer the last question. Your time to answer the other nine starts _now._"

The collective sound of the exam sheets being unsheathed had the energy of a gunshot with how loud they were. Numerous pages being slipped open while the sound of creaking plastic provided a squeaky backing track. A shared frantic energy radiated through the room, bouncing from ninja to ninja like electricity. However, you could soon notice when this same energy was flushed out. It was when the genin began actually reading the questions.

_**Question 1 **_

_**A.**__ Explain the anatomical reactions caused by acute chakra synthesis and how this process can affect the dichotomy of the human body. 250 words minimum. _

Naruto read the sentence back to himself three times. He literally didn't know what a quarter of those words were. He nervously turned his eyes over to Sasuke, hoping to see the Uchiha scribbling away at his work. Unfortunately, this was not the case. Sasuke's hands were clasped over each other, obscuring a majority of his face from his view. Naruto immediately recognized this as the action Sasuke made when he was seriously locked in thought. He was correct, Sasuke was locked into his thoughts at this very moment but the thoughts were far away from the rational, ever-thinking ones Naruto though they would be. Instead of "hmm, this hypothesis is interesting but to properly figure out it's statistics, I must first annunciate the initial problem", they were closer to:

_Oh, fuck oh fuck oh fuck oh fuck oh fuck_

* * *

_This…this is insane! No one would be able to answer these questions on their own!_

Sakura began to fret, looking over the work with a panicked expression. The questions were a dead-end, to the point where she doubted even the most book-savvy jonin would be able to manage a perfect score. Genins like her had no hope of answering more than a tiny fraction of them.

_**Maybe you're just dumb. **_Inner-Sakura helpfully offered.

No way. She could have potentially finished top 3 in the academy if it was only down to the written component of the test, Iruka said so himself in her end of term report. If she was incapable of properly understanding the material, then a majority of the genin were completely fucked. Was this just a way to wean out the overachievers? That'd be stupid, only the most overachieving of the overachievers would be able to properly approach the questions and even then, depending on the minimum score, those people would just be dragged down by their team anyway.

She bit down on her finger, using the slight pain to try and refocus her attention somewhere else. There was something Ibiki had said earlier that she'd found suspicious, especially when considering how they'd been tricked when it came to the locked room.

"_Secondly: for any genin caught cheating, __**a point will be docked from their personal score"**_

They were willing to fail you on the spot for speaking at the wrong time, but _cheating_ was only worth a docking of a point. With the five times stipulation, it was almost like they were inviting it, which Sakura thought may have been the point. The first stage was meant to clearly explain to them that they needed to question their surroundings. Maybe this wasn't a traditional exam as much as it was a reconnaissance mission. That seemed more in the lane of a chunin then some mathematical equation that most ninja wouldn't be able to figure out no matter their rank.

"_Psst…Sakura_." A low voice came from her side.

Sakura turned slightly, finding Tenten staring back at her with an inquisitive look.

"So, we probably have to cheat right?" She said.

Sakura nodded.

For a second, she'd felt like she'd happened upon some grand discovery that only a select few in the room had thought of. Upon Tenten's remark, she realized most likely everyone in the room was now thinking the same thing. This assertion, unlike her previous one, would be right.

* * *

Akamaru's eyes ran over every sheet he could see, his posture more closely resembling that of a bird than a dog. Occasionally, he'd mumble something into Kiba's hood, which would earn the pair a strange look from one of the patrolling sentinels. Kiba gave little thought to this. It wasn't like they penalized him or anything, as they just assumed it was one of the Inuzuka's stupid dogs having a fit. There was one every exam, they had been told.

In reality, Kiba was utilizing Akamaru to nab every single answer he could get. His pen scratched against the paper, harmoniously flowing in time with Akamaru's grumbles. Dog's had a wider field of vision than humans did, meaning the pup was able to gaze over more answers at once than he would've been able to do on his own. Akamaru scanned his surroundings, cross-examining answers that could've possibly been wrong while checking from ones that were consistent across multiple sheets.

However, the world suddenly went dark for the both of them, as a sharp stinging sensation ran through their eyes.

"Ah!" Kiba growled to himself, bringing an arm up and beginning to rub at his features to try and alleviate the tingle.

Small grains of sand became excavated from his eyes thanks to his digging, Kiba having to brush them outward off his fingernails. He looked down at his hands with a strange expression, before attempting to help alleviate Akamaru of the same struggles. Obviously, these two were not the only ones effected by this. Tiny grains of sand sailed through the air, so small that the sentinels were unable to see them even in the sharp sunlight. Gaara looked on impatiently, waiting for the particles to hit a target before beginning the intended process.

With his sand, the Suna boy was able to use a technique known as "the third eye". Using chakra, he wove a connection between his optic nerve and his sand to create an eye that he was capable of seeing out of no matter it's range. Clearly, this was a very good way to search the room for answers but if he simply used the technique by itself, he ran the risk of getting spotted by either the sentinels or other genin. To counteract this, he proceeded to blow and then direct a bundle of sand into his intended area of watch, blinding its inhabitants long enough for him to guide his sand through the floor and onto the desk so it could form his third eye. He placed one hand over his left eye as he did so, not wanting to be thrown off by the sudden shift in vision that occurred with one of his ocular nerves serving a different purpose.

Unfortunately, this meant that he had to briefly attempt to grapple with the optical rift when it came to answering these questions, to the point that Gaara found his already scrawling handwriting devolving into a slow scribble more becoming of a fourth-grader than someone of his intellect. His speed in particular was what Sasuke took umbrage with as he used his sharingan to copy the writing. Due to the Uchiha's positioning, Gaara was really the only person he could find who was writing at the current moment and, while he'd observed the boy's prior technique, he was also ignorant to what exactly it was doing. In his mind, Gaaras awful penmanship could be chocked down to two things. Either whatever he was using to cheat was giving him a bad view or Gaara just had the worst hand-eye coordination in the world.

Either way, it meant that Sasuke often times had to guess what the exact number Gaara was writing was (2's, 3's, 5's and 4's could all look interchangeable depending on his sloppiness) but it sure as hell was easier for him than the other dojutus user in his row. Hinata was capable of _using _the byakugan. As a main house member, she would probably have been orphaned or placed into the branch house had she not been able to by this age. However, despite her status, her capability with it was not _entirely_ perfect. She was attempting to use the byakugan to see through Gaara's back and read his answers, but due to his sand gourd, this proved to be impossible.

In all fairness, even completely proficient byakugan-wielders would struggle to do what she was attempting. It was not the gourd itself that was the problem, no, Hinata had little problem seeing through that. Instead, it was what was _in_ the gourd that was giving her grief. Sand had been packed into every square-inch of the container, which was already bad enough. Due to sand's grainy texture, the byakugan struggled to differentiate it's form enough to allow Hinata to see through him entirely transparently. However, the worst part of it was the strange _chakra signal _that was permeating through the sand itself. This made it practically impossible for the byakugan to assign translucent qualities to Gaara's form, with the dojutsu struggling to differentiate human from object.

Hinata began to fret to herself upon realizing this was a dead end. It was hard not to feel self-conscious when your ace in the hole proved entirely worthless to help you. Maybe if she'd just trained it a little bit harder, she might have been able to make out his answers at least a little bit. Now, all it did was make her head hurt. She looked up to her side, a wave of embarrassment hitting her as she saw Neji a few rows back, scribbling away with his own byakugan activated. This was not a fair comparison, as Neji was presumably copying from someone who didn't have a strangely sentient barrel of sand strapped to his back but by this time, Hinata's "lack of self-worth" train had already prepped to leave the station with little in the way to hold it back.

_**That's why I've gotta become Hokage. So, all you morons start noticing me and treating me like I'm somebody!**_

The echoes of words long past shook the Hyuga girl out of her pitiful daze, Hinata quickly refocusing on the work in front of her. She needed to find someone who was currently writing around her. She reactivated the byakugan, sharpening her hearing in an attempt to try and overhear anyone writing. She spotted a few people below her, but they were simply trying to solve the questions through sheer force of thought and, judging by what she could see of their equations, they weren't worth following anyway. She followed her ears around, attempting to find the source of pencil lead scratching that she could hear. This trail of sound eventually led her directly to her side where she found Naruto writing away at his paper.

Sasuke was too, but his body was so lurched over due to trying to copy Gaara that she wouldn't be able to copy off him without making it too obvious to even the slightest glance from a sentinel. Even if she had been able to look at his work though (and she could with the byakugan activated), she was more focused on Naruto. She may have had a childish crush on him, but that crush was certainly not owed to anything to do with his intelligence. He was, at best, academically stupid yet in front of her, she saw him writing away at the work with eyes steely in their focus. His penwork was filled with a virtue and attention that she'd never seen from him in the academy. Maybe he'd really changed since they graduated, maybe he'd…

"What the fuck are you doing?" Sasuke loudly whispered to him.

The Uchiha had also taken a glanced at his friends' paper, but his reaction was significantly more negative than Hinata's. This may have been owed to the fact that he could actually see what Naruto had been writing. Naruto briefly scanned over the room in search of any nearby watchers before he turned to Sasuke (and, consequently, Hinata), holding up his page. On it was a surprisingly well drawn illustration of a cartoonishly-stylized Naruto, who had been blown up to the size of some sort of giant monster, punching through the Hokage tower.

"It's a good drawing, right?"

"It is actually. Now rub it out." Sasuke whispered, earning a pout from Naruto.

"What, why?"

"Because the drawing's taking up your whole question box."

"I think it's good Naruto." Hinata whispered, a smug smile gracing the boy's lips as she did so.

Sasuke's ire temporarily became focused upon her with even the tepid anger he was displaying seeming a little bit more intense thanks to the looming presence of the sharingan in his pupils.

"It doesn't explain acute chakra synthesis though, does it?"

"Oh right, if you're so smart why don't you explain it then?" Naruto barked, maybe a little bit too loud when considering you weren't supposed to talk.

"I can't, these questions are designed for old fucks who sit around reading shit books about stuff that doesn't matter. That's why you're supposed to cheat." Sasuke replied, letting a little bit of lingering frustration simmer into his tone.

Naruto nodded. Despite his lack of intelligence, even he'd been able to figure out that the test hadn't been what it seemed. His problem was that he didn't have any special eye powers that let him magically read other people's sheets or weird nature releases that were specifically designed to sticky beak exam worksheets. All he had were shadow clones, which all looked like him so what could they do. Maybe he could make so many that he could beat all the sentinels and Ibiki up and then just copy at his own discretion. Nah, that wouldn't work unless he was fast enough to kick all their asses before a single one could expel him. Sasuke had promised to give him his own answers when he finished copying them, but with how his copying was going, Naruto doubted he'd get them all done in time.

The Uzumaki searched deeper through his book of tricks, coming up with blank after blank of useful skills that were useless in the current environment. What? He could make enough of himself to match the sentinel's numbers? Cool, what could that do? Wow, he could make himself look like a woman? What did it matter, Ibiki didn't look like the type who would be amused (or aroused) by it anyway?

Wait, hold on a second…

_He could make enough of himself to match the sentinel's numbers-_

_He could make himself look like- _

A burst of light erupted in the bulb of Naruto's mind.

He quickly shushed Sasuke and Hinata, the latter of whom wasn't even speaking in the first place, before thrusting his arm up in the air like a kid wanting to answer a question in class. Soon enough, a bandanaed chunin with slicked-over black hair covering one of his eyes walked towards the boy.

"Yes?" He asked.

"I need to go to the bathroom." Naruto explained.

The man looked irritated.

"Already?"

"Hey man, when you gotta go, you gotta go."

"Okay." He agreed, which for some reason did not actually dissuade Naruto from speaking

"And I am _busting_."

"Alright, just- "

"I mean, it's bad. Like, "seeing a drinking fountain would set me off" bad."

"**I've got it**." The man growled, finally managing to silence Naruto for a minute.

He reached into his pocket, taking out a pair of handcuffs attached to a long chain.

"Put out your hands." He said calmly only to receive a disgusted response from Naruto.

"Ah, yuck! What are you, some sort creepy sex pervert or something?"

"We escort you to the bathroom to make sure you're not trying to sneak anything by us."

Naruto hesitated for a second, almost making it seem to anyone watching him that he was going to refuse the invitation before he did as instructed and thrust his hands out. The man chained them with a sharp click, before bringing Naruto back to his feet and beginning to walk him to the back of the room. Sasuke watched with interest wondering whether Naruto had some sort of genius plan or if he just needed to piss really bad. If he was making bets, he would've guessed the second one.

* * *

Tenten aimed one of her small mirror strips along the length of the skylight, adjusting the sun's rays toward the boy in front of her. The mirrors were just one of the many tools she carried around with her on the daily. They were also one of the many Neji had previously deemed unnecessary, which was a fact that Tenten would've loved to rub in his face had he not been completely justified in saying so. It was no matter to her though, she always knew you could never have too many tools on you and now she was being proven right.

She watched to make sure the guided sunlight didn't alert Ibiki to her presence, casually angling it so that it hit just right to sizzle into the eye of the ninja before her.

"Ah!" He cried, bringing a hand up to try and block out the sun.

It was a war Tenten was more than prepared for, constantly inclining and then re-inclining the sun for long enough that he exposed his work for her completely. She quickly copied down his answers, stowing the mirror for the moment before nudging Sakura.

"I got question six." She said, showing the other girl her nearly completed work.

"I've got question five." Sakura said, doing the same.

It was in this moment that the two of them were glad they had become friendly prior to the exam. If they hadn't, Tenten would imagine her fate would be similar to that of Lee's currently. The poor boy was stationed a few rows above her, stranded in a sea of faces that he didn't recognize. It was clear from the panicked expression on his face that he had already realized he had no hope of passing the questions, but that was to be expected. Lee wasn't _particularly _intelligent when it came to book smarts, there was no way he could ever comprehend what half the information jotted down on the page was entailing. It wasn't in anyway his fault, the worksheets may as well have been intended for the fucking Hokage, but Tenten still couldn't help but fret. Even if she and Neji somehow managed to cheat themselves to a double set of perfect scores, Lee would still tank them completely if he couldn't answer at least one)

Her mind ran through the ways she could possibly get her answers to Lee. She hadn't gotten penalized for cheating yet, but a lot of people had (multiple times over in fact). That much was evident from the booming voices that would occasionally ring over the room.

"_Team 89. __**Fail!**_" One of the sentinels would shout, their voice followed with the sound of dejected footsteps from team in question.

"_Team 35. __**Fail!**_"

"_Team 12. __**Fail!**_"

"_Team 78. __**Fail!**_"

It was like bombs being deployed in a warzone, sailing through the air before scattering through the area. Tenten racked her brain through the rules they'd been given, trying to find some sort of loophole to what Ibiki had set out.

_Can't use tools except for a pen or pencil. A point gets docked for cheating. Zero means insta-fail, most likely can't talk…_ She listed.

Then she realized Ibiki may have been too vague for his own good when it came to the rules. She scratched over her sheet, checking what she knew about her answers. She was only missing the tenth question, and if she'd even got four or five of these right, it may have been enough to pull the team through if she did what she did next. Slowly, Tenten rose to her feet, gripping onto her sheet with shaky palms. Ibiki immediately took notice thanks to the squeaking sound of her chair, glancing up at her with a laser-focused glare.

"What are you doing?" He asked.

Tenten's hands stopped shaking. The intentional vagueness in his tone was all she needed to confirm her strategy.

"You never said we had to remain seated." She said, voice rippling with a surprising confidence.

The room had been silenced by the sound of Ibiki's voice, waiting on baited breath for the man to dismiss Tenten for her actions. Nothing. Nothing. Nothing. Then something strange happened. Ibiki smiled. Not a big smile or even something that could be considered a grin, but it was a smile. He gently nodded his head, imploring Tenten to make her next move.

The kunoichi smiled, conviction renewed as she strode over to Lee. The boy perked up upon her appearance, only to be surprised as she slammed her paper onto his table. One of the nearby sentinels became angered at this, lifting up his clipboard to write her down.

"That's cheating!" He barked.

Tenten looked up at him unconcerned.

"Dock me then."

Her benign reaction was warranted. If Lee wasn't allowed to cheat off her answers, then they would most likely fail the test (his sheet was 90% blank at this very moment, so even "likely" was an understatement). If he was allowed to cheat off hers, then, even with the point taken off her score, it was infinitely more than they would've counted had she not stepped in.

_Thank god_. Neji inwardly said, thought process following a similar pattern of understanding.

Sakura looked up at the pair, impressed by Tenten's ingenuity. This was short lived however. Her turn around had indirectly given her eyeline away to Ino, who had been staring at the girl in wait for what felt like half an hour. Now was her chance, even better with all the attention placed upon a different part of the room. She pushed her hands into a diamond shape, hand seals at the ready before pushing her spirit outwards.

The mindscape was a messy thing to navigate. It was dark, pools and puddles of abstract colors and thoughts clinging at your spirit was you crossed it. Ino trudged forward, the blinding blue of her spirit form cutting through the drudge of Sakura's brain. These qualities weren't specific to billboard brow, they were apparent in every mind. However, with her chakra already lowered thanks to using it on Niro earlier, Ino was struggling to get a grip upon Sakura's subconscious. It didn't help that the girl had a lot more fight in her mind than she expected. She'd managed to get control of her eyesight, but in its hesitance to shut down, Sakura's brain was still clinging onto the motor functions.

"Hey, Sakura?" A whispered voice boomed into her ears.

Was Tenten back already? No way, unless she'd run back across the room, she couldn't have made it in time.

"Sakura?" The voice spoke again.

Ino cursed to herself. It was Choji.

When you took control of a body, the body tended to black out during the process of switching the minds ownership. Unfortunately, Choji lacked the cognitive ability to recognize this and had simply thought Sakura had passed out.

"Hey, can I get someone over here?" He asked, voice panicked.

_Shut the fuck up, __**shut the fuck up…**_ Ino chided, beginning to frantically try and wrestle control from Sakura.

Once again, even in perfect conditions, the mindscape was messy to navigate. When stressed, it was a overbearing cluster of information that you were forced to try and untangle.

"Uh, I think she needs a medic or something." Choji said, luckily quiet for the moment.

God, if there was ever an example of "too nice for his own good", Choji was it. Luckily, Ino managed to get complete control of the mind _just _before he started straight up yelling. "Sakura" snapped to life, quickly thrusting her hands out in front of the Akimichi boy.

"_Choji_! I'm fine, just had a late night yesterday. Okay?" Ino said, only just able to overcome the strangeness of having to speak with Sakura's voice.

Choji smiled and nodded, taking her words at face value. Upon seeing him turn back to his work, Ino did the same, running Sakura's gaze over the writing. She jammed as much of the information as she could into her own brain, memorizing it before swiftly exiting Sakura's mindscape just in time for the other girl to regain focus by the time Tenten came back. Sakura was clearly shaken by the lapse in memory, a sudden restlessness running through her body but Ino only barely bothered to pay attention as she re-aimed her jutsu upon Choji.

His brain proved significantly easier to gain control of, with there being little downtime between Ino entering his mind and completely seizing control. She looked down at his worksheet, rubbing out any mistakes he'd apparently made before filling in the answers with what she remembered. As soon as the ninth was filled in completely, she exited outwards and began scanning the room for Shikamaru. Due to his smarts, Ino expected him to be just as, if not harder to fully take control of than Sakura, but in reality, he was no more difficult than Choji. This was probably down to laziness. He'd look close to dozing off when Ino had seized his mind, so really, it should've been expected.

The Yamanaka girl quickly looked over his sheet, analyzing his answers only to find that four of them had been written in correctly already, so all she needed to do was fill in the blanks. If she was being honest, she was kind of impressed.

* * *

The chunin waited on the other side of a thin wood barrier, wondering why Naruto was just standing at the urinal without peeing. His handcuffs had been loosened for the moment, though he was still bound by the chain should he attempt a sneaky getaway. Seconds ticked away, Naruto beginning to lose valuable exam time because he apparently had the piss-equivalent of stage freight. Around the one-minute mark, the chunin began to get restless.

"Hey, are you going to go or what?" He asked.

"Don't rush me dude."

Was all Naruto said in return. That was until around ten seconds later, when his tone switched from completely zen to suddenly smarmy.

"I kinda feel like you're side-eyeing me."

"I'm not." The chunin said back, completely correct when considering the barrier made it literally impossible for him to "side-eye".

"That's what a side-eyer would say."

"Well, what do you want me to do then?"

"I dunno, maybe stop side-eyeing dumbass."

This got the chunin mad

"Listen shithead. I've been a chunin since I was sixteen years old. Wanna guess how old I am now?"

"Fifty?" Naruto jeered back.

"_No! _Twenty-six. That's right, I've been a chunin for a decade. I've been a chunin nearly as long as _you've been alive_. How about showing a little bit of respect to-"

The chunin had gotten so mad, that he didn't even notice Naruto's head peaking out from the top of the barrier. By the time he did, Naruto had latched onto his head and began _slamming_ it back into the barrier.

_**Bang. **_

_**Bang!**_

_**BANG!**_

The wood of the barrier nearly caved in on itself as Naruto slammed him down hard enough to knock him unconscious for the moment. The man's body limply fell to the ground, ruffled hair and still motion sending a small jolt of guilt shivering down Naruto's back. However, this may have been muted because it was not the _real _Naruto who had done this. Instead, it was a shadow clone he'd summoned while speaking. The clone had been balancing on his back for the moment, and now hopped down in hopes of freeing his maker.

"You get em?" The original asked.

"Yep." The clone responded, digging through the chunins pockets and finding a small grey key.

He clicked it into the lock of Naruto's cuffs, completely freeing him from the length of the chain. The pair wasted no time hoisting the chunin's body up onto their shoulders, carrying the ninja's motionless form into one of the nearby cubicles. After a swift lock of the door, they balanced him against the edge of the toilet seat. The possibility that he may wake up quickly was not lost on Naruto, who clamped the handcuff around the man's ankle before tying the connective chain round the base of the toilet. He turned to the clone with a small nod, prompting the copy to clasp its hands together in seal.

_**Bamf! **_

Smoke surrounded the clone, dissipating to reveal it's new, changed form. Clearly, it was trying to copy the looks of the chunin, with the slicked over black hair and such. Naruto looked over it, moving a thoughtful hand to the underside of his chin as he evaluated the sight.

"Nope. You got the nose and eyes wrong. He's got brown eyes, not brown and green. Also, he's got a massive bird nose. You gave him the same as mine"

The clone nodded, shifting its hands into place once again and transforming itself with the changes Naruto had described. This worked well enough. The nose was still too small, and the eyes were a lighter shade of brown than they were supposed to be but he doubted anyone would notice, especially as the time for the tenth question got closer and closer. He reopened the bathroom door, mentally reminding the clone that it needed to act close to the chunin's general behavior. The copy stiffened itself upright, gripping Naruto "hard" across the shoulder and beginning to escort him forward. It was unfortunate that they had had to leave the handcuffs behind, but the room was so crowded that he was willing to bet that no one would notice.

_**Creak!**_

Maybe he had spoken too soon. Just as he and the clone exited the bathroom stall, a handcuffed Kankuro emerged into the room along with a chunin tugging him along with the chains. The commonplace silence of the bathroom was quickly laced with tension, Naruto praying that the sentinel didn't find the lack of handcuffs suspicious. Each second that passed felt like a minute, the Uzumaki nearly wilting under the stern gaze of the chunin man.

"_Get moving_." "The chunin" behind him scolded, shoving his body forwards with a strict hand.

It was seemingly enough to fool the two for the time being, Naruto and the clone quickly exiting the room. Kankuro and the older ninja stood there, watching the door for a few seconds before the Suna boy breathed a heavy sigh of relief.

_Damn, I thought he figured me out. _

Kankuro raised a finger to the strangely still sentinel, tapping the man's unflinching cheek. The sound that followed was not the near-silent one of skin grazing against skin though. No, the sound that emanated from the man was closer to _metal_. With a sharp _pop, _his left cheek and eye detached from his face in a single segment, it's shape precise like that of a well-polished machine. Underneath its contents sat a small glass eye imbedded within a wooden face. With the removal of one of the cheek pieces, the smooth metallic finish rest of his "skin" was made significantly more prominent.

If Naruto had been a little bit more observant, he would've noticed that Kankuro was lacking the large bandaged object he had been stowing on his back. Even if he did, though, it wouldn't have meant anything unless he could've somehow guessed that _this _was a possibility when pertaining to its disappearance. Kankuro smirked to himself, taking a small scroll and pen out from his belt and readying them.

"Alright crow. Tell me what you saw."

The glass eye of the chunin's true form began spinning around, pupil bouncing manically with the recollection of it's past. The mouth of the machine shot downwards robotically, opening far wider than was humanly possible. A small humming began to radiate from the inside of it, manifesting in a voice that sounded somehow close to being human, yet obviously unnatural at the same time.

"First. Question. The answer. Is:"

It spoke in broken sentences, punctuation coming at noticeably inhuman intervals. This was to be expected though, Kankuro supposed. It'd only been a few months ago he'd, one, been able to get it to talk and second, been able to get it to simulate a human's voice. It would be a little while more before he was able to get it to perfectly assimilate speech patterns.

He gently scrawled upon the scroll, writing back the answers Crow told him. It was funny how he'd disguised the puppet at the start of the written test, yet somehow none of the ninja happened to notice that there was an extra sentinel walking amongst them. Then again, Konoha chunin were so stupid he doubted most of them were able to count in the first place.

_Ha! That's a good bit, I should write that down. _Kankuro scoffed to himself, somehow not realizing that this was an equally stupid thing to do.

* * *

Only the select few ninjas that lined the front rows could check the time, yet the realization that the test was going down to the wire was essentially universal around the room. What didn't help was that Ibiki had begun writing team names down on the blackboard, indicating that the dreaded tenth question was not as far away as it had once been. Each scratch of the chalk on the board uprooted more and more butterflies within the genin's stomachs, the stillness and silent order of the room giving way to an undercurrent of panic and fear.

Temari's eyes were locked down on her paper as her pan scratched away, leaving trails of messy ink along with each flick of her wrist. She'd subtly received a scroll from a sentinel just minutes before that contained the answer to each question along with a constant stream of stupid jokes that left no doubt in her mind that it had been written by Kankuro. While genin had previously been standing up to interact with their teammates like Tenten had done earlier, these displays of teamwork had been generally discarded in favor of a hyper-individualized barrage of clacking pencils and scrubbing erasers. Naruto's clone had to avoid breaking out into a sprint, as he attempted to _subtly_ survey the room for answers. Sasuke and Hinata were both relying on said answers, the latter especially so. Sasuke had given Naruto props for his strategy, but there was an obvious, _**glaring **_problem with it, which was that the clone was still Naruto and Naruto just wasn't all that smart academically.

Each round trip the clone would do would bring back half an answer if they were lucky, a method which wasn't cost-efficient when you realized the number of factors in play. The clone had to both copy and deliver answers without triggering the suspicions of the other sentinels, meaning each chunk of answer he gave to his original was in the form of small scraps of paper. Luckily, Naruto had surprisingly neat handwriting to offset his lack of grammatical processionary, but it was hardly a saving grace when he was bringing back so many scraps of paper, it was almost like they were playing some fucked-up card game to get just one question finished. At this point, Sasuke was willing to throw caution to the wind, letting both Hinata and Naruto blatantly cheat off the answers he'd already managed to get while the Uzumaki instructed the clone to retrieve answers that his friend lacked.

In all honesty though, Sasuke was significantly more deliberate when letting Hinata cheat off of him then Naruto. While a small part of him was letting her do it for humanitarian fulfillment, he also recognized that, unlike Naruto, her getting caught cheating would only hurt _her _team, not his. It wasn't like he necessarily wanted to keep her locked out of the next stage, especially since in his eyes, Team 8 definitely seemed like the least threating out of all of the ones they'd interacted with in the exam, but if they were to fail…

It was just good strategy. You didn't have the killer instinct to end your brother's life if you weren't even able to muster up the courage to _barely_ influence another team's shot at passing some pointless exam stage.

_**BRIIIIIIIIIIING!**_

The timer went off, the jagged tune of its sound having the same effect on the room than the announcement that a tailed beast had just invaded the village. Ibiki took his place at the front of the room, slick posture and slinging of his coat demanding the attention of the contestants.

"Pencils down, eyes up front." He said, words being followed exactly by every ninja in the room. "We have entered the final fifteen minutes, which means you are now about to take the tenth question."

He motioned to the words on the chalkboard. Each one was a team name with a space for more writing underneath it. It was completely comprehensive, the name of every team who had entered the exam being written upon the board. Ones that had been dismissed during the the exam had had their extra space filled up with the letters "N/A".

Ibiki's gaze went from neutral to stern as he stared to speak.

"Now, to ask the tenth question I need to explain the rules of it to you. As you can see behind me, I have written up the team names of every single squad in the room. In those blank spaces below them, I will write a name selected at random. That is who the question will be directed towards. However, this question will barley be a question at all. It will instead be a choice that quantifies _how much you want to be a shinobi_."

Ibiki's hardened lips shifted to a devilish smile, ever-evaluating eyes sinisterly glancing over the genin.

"Whoever's name is written underneath the space will have these choices. You can accept the choice, instantly pass the whole exam and become a chunin just like that. However, if you chose this your two teammates will _never be able to take the exams again_."

He briefly paused to let the genin evaluate the weight of his words. Judging by their faces, Ibiki could see that this weight was hitting them over the head like a brick. It made him smile that bit harder.

"_Or_, you can allow both your teammates to carry on towards the next stage. However, now **you will never be able to take the exams again**."

Panicked chatter began to spring up among the examinees, a sudden disregard for the strict speaking rules of the stage spreading between them.

"_Quiet_. I will begin writing the names down now." Ibiki growled, picking up his chalk and beginning to write across the board.

The chalk may as well have been a nail with how much dread it instilled within the genin when it was used. Naruto put his hands up to his face, a stream of thoughts all trying to take the top spot in his mind at once.

_What?! They can't do that…that means…no way! If they can't…huh!_

He gazed around. Sasuke had clasped his face within his hands while Sakura had fully transformed into a "deer in headlights". Any color was now sapped from her face, an ethereal paleness grasping at her features. The three of them became locked at a crossroads. None of them thought they had it in them to dismiss the other two, yet the more they thought about it the more they couldn't help but feel like it was a real possibility.

There were a lot of things a genin couldn't and would never be able to do.

A genin couldn't become Hokage.

A genin couldn't kill Itachi Uchiha.

A genin couldn't have any pushback over the authority of their guardian.

These thoughts circulated through their minds, clawing at the three's throats. They tried to push them away, each pair of eyes locking on the board while selfishly hoping one thing. That the decision would not be placed upon them but one of the other two.

Ibiki's chalk connected with the space under the words "Team 7". He paused for a split-second (which felt like literal days for the trio) before regripping the stick and with one sharp _flick_, writing down the name of the burden bearer. In big bold letters, he had written:

_**Naruto Uzumaki. **_


	27. Interlude: The Tenth Question

_**27- Interlude: The Tenth Question.**_

_**Naruto Uzumaki. **_

It had been written on the board, clear as day. With a simple flick of his wrist, Ibiki had pushed the burden of the world onto the named boy. Sweat began to seep from his palms, making them clammy and sticky.

He subtly looked over to his side. Sasuke had not moved, hands clasped over his face as if the information on the board was invisible. No matter his lack of eye contact though, Naruto could feel the sharp sting of his aura burrowing into him and prodding at his moral fiber. He could feel the same energy radiating from Sakura down below, sending jolts of beating dread down the beads of his back. Back and forth, he argued against his own thoughts, wondering what the best course of action was in this situation. Both just seemed so equally terrible, he couldn't **choose. **His mind divided itself into a clashing school of thought, concepts smashing together like rivaling waves on a stormy beach.

_Don't worry, they won't care. Invite them to your Hokage ceremony and see if they're still mad. _

_What the fuck are you saying? Just toss them away like garbage? Who the fuck even are you Naruto Uzumaki? _

_Shut up fool. It runs in the bloodline. You think father made his omelet without cracking a few eggshells? _

_And he was a big dumb idiot!_

_He wasn't, you are! Don't you get it? You were struggling on the blasted written test; this is your only chance-_

_Then I don't even have a chance in the first place! _

The sight of Ibiki beginning to walk up to the students written to receive their answers briefly snapped Naruto out of his daze. The jonin scanned his papers, matching the photo up to a target before walking over to their desk. In this instance, he was speaking to a young boy with shortish black hair and wide-rimmed spectacles. He looked as nervous as could be, eyes watering as they sat downcast among the ground. His head was stuck leaned over, unwilling to make visual contact with anyone else in the room.

"Watashi Inoue. What is your choice."

The boys lip quivered, physically holding the words back before he managed to finally utter some semblance of speech.

"…Let the other two go to the next stage." He said, barely above a whisper.

His voice was shaky and hoarse, rippling with vulnerabilities that would usually be an obvious sign to lay off of him. Ibiki didn't do this. To him, those vulnerabilities were meant to be exploited, not respected, a sadistic twinkle flickering in his eye as he leered over the still downtrodden boy.

"Watashi, _Watashi_…"

His voice stayed calm, but any tranquility he tried to project was offset by the fierce slamming of his hand against Watashi's desk. The boy's face shot up to face the proctor, jolted by the sudden movement of his table.

"Is this really what you want?" Ibiki asked.

So predator-like were his features that a lick of his lips would not seem out of the ordinary at this point. Each second spent under his gaze caused Watashi's quivering to increase tenfold, the boy looking mid-way through a fit by the time he once again mustered the courage to converse with Ibiki.

"Yes sir."

"Really? Because I've looked at your profile Watashi. You come from a low-income family, all civilians, no clan. You've had to put in work, _so much work_."

Ibiki feigned compassion for the genin's plight, but he wasn't fooling anyone. Every word that came out of his mouth was drenched in a disgustingly sadistic glee. He was reveling in his deconstruction of the younger ninja's sense of selves, eyes joyously wide in a way that could only be compared to a small child gazing upon something sweet.

"What about that boy on your team." He said, jutting a figure out to a slightly pudgy ninja a few rows above them. "He was into a mid-level clan, yet never put any work in. He's been the lowest common denominator of your squad since the very beginning, tanking your missions and your grades and now your exams. Can you honestly go to sleep tonight knowing he's going to have yet another chance to underachieve while you're going to spend the rest of your life working part-time at your dads' shop to pay the bills. A genin salary isn't going to support you, as I'm sure you know."

"Y-y-y-yes sir, I can sir." Watashi mumbled, though he didn't even sound sure of the statement himself.

"Why?" Ibiki asked.

"B-because I- "

"Scared of the stigma perhaps?" Ibik cut him off.

The silence he got in response indicated that he was at least close to correct.

"Scared of being considered a filthy traitor, an abandoner? Of being called selfish?"

Ibiki paused for a little after this before his vulturine gaze quickly turning to one of contempt.

"I know what that's like Watashi. You try to keep the village safe with only means that can properly do it, and everyone looks at you like you're a monster. I know you did it. You did it as soon as I mentioned my occupation. I want **you** to apologize."

"I'm sorry sir." Watashi spoke softly, clearly only doing so to placate Ibiki and get him to leave him alone.

"Louder." Ibiki ordered.

"_I'm sorry sir_."

Ibiki paused slightly, watching as tears began to well up within Watashi's eyes. The boy was visibly biting down on his lips to try and keep the waterworks in in, a fact that only made him scoff that much harder.

"Fucking pathetic. I'm glad you chose what you chose, couldn't be trusted as anything more than a meat shield." Ibiki berated, before quickly moving over to the next genin.

He was just as ruthless with the following ninja, despite the fact that she'd chosen the opposite option. It became very clear that what you were picking didn't matter to Ibiki, it was wrong. It was always going to be wrong. He would verbally lambast people who offered themselves up, saying that they were complete failures, lazy do-nothings and disgraces to their family who would never have been capable of being chunin in the first place. Anyone who chose to take the chunin slot would be called selfish, greedy and power-hungry with Ibiki seemingly becoming angered that they were going to be considered even a slight rank above what they were currently. He selected his targets at random, bringing a hushed panic from any row he walked past. Depending on his course of action that hushed panic would either become a sharp sigh of relief or a further consolidation of terror.

Naruto had begun blocking out the noise around him, retreating to the solace of his own headspace in an attempt to block out the sounds of Ibikis tongue-lashings. He knew that he would be put into the crosshairs soon, that was for certain, but he couldn't help but go back and forth between the two voices in his head.

_You thought it was bad before? Wait until you give up every friendship you've ever made for a stupid ninja position. Imagine how people will look at you…_

_When have____you __**ever**__ cared about this? You've worked so hard for this __**Uzu**__-Naruto, so very hard. Maybe these __**frivolous**__ friendships are what's __**holding you back? **_

_As if! Friends are the only thing you've ever really wanted! Your Hokage bullshit is secondary, dude. _

_**Lies. **__To become Hokage is to __**cement**__ the fact to everyone that you're more than the fox __**dude**__. It is __**status**__, it is wealth, it is __**adoration**__. Friends fade away, but that stigma stays with you forever if you __**don't throw them to the wayside now**__! _

The voice praising the virtues of friendship suddenly started to become muted. It tried to speak, but it's words would fade out before they could even hope to reach Naruto's true train of thought. The second, **bolder **voice hungrily latched onto this fact, eating away at the real estate of his mind.

**Do it. Cast them away. Renounce your ties and enjoy the acceptance you always yearned for. So what, you lose some delusional Uchiha and his airheaded tagalong? Please, if you're going to become Hokage you'll need to do **_**much worse than that**_**. Do it now, strike when you have the chance Uzumaki or forsake yourself to eternal persecution! **

The thoughts burrowed through his head; message amplified by their sound. So powerful, so true, so _unbelievably fucking stupid_.

**What?**

Naruto closed his eyes for a second, time beginning to lapse around him. As darkness overtook his eyes, he found himself no longer in the exams room. He was standing on the unbreakable water top, dull sepia lighting flying through the air. In front of him was not a black board and lanes of desks anymore. No, instead what stood before him was a gate and the red fox that had been jailed behind it.

There had not been "two Naruto's" waging a mental battle in his head. There had been one Naruto and one nine-tailed fox. Luckily, said fox just couldn't pass for the real thing when it really needed to. Maybe it was the significant difference in the two's speech patterns, maybe it was the fact that Kurama just couldn't dumb himself down for long enough to be convincing. Either way, Naruto stood before the fox's gate, ripples simmering under the water top.

"I think you need to shut the fuck up." He grumbled.

He blinked yet again.

He was back in the classroom, a small bolt of terror re-imbedding itself into his chest. The moments of time he'd "missed" while conversing with Kurama still remained clear in his mind. Unsurprisingly, Choji had chosen to fail, showing little regard for Ibiki's intimidation tactics. The jonin had considered the plump boy a lost cause when he answered the question "what's your main goal in life" with "that's a toughie…" followed by nearly twenty seconds of deliberation. All in all, neither had come out of the exchange looking particularly good.

What was surprising though, was Neji's response. The proud Hyuga boy who had showed nothing but distain for his teammates, ended up choosing the failing option as well. However, even in the aftermath of casting away his future as a shinobi, he didn't look particularly sad or worried. In fact, the way he'd delivered the decision had been incredibly benign, with his tone of response sounding closer to what you'd speak to a waiter with than one becoming of the biggest decision of his young life. Afterwards, Ibiki had circled around the classroom taking a few more responses (all of which were significantly more affected by his interrogation strategies) before he settled upon Gaara.

He marched up to the boy with the same commanding presence that had brought some of the other genin to hysterics, yet the Suna boy simply continued fiddling with his pencil. He weaved in and out through the crevasse of his knuckles, barely even bothering to look up at Ibiki as he first approached.

"Gaara of the Desert. You- "

"I choose to fail."

The suddenness, as well as the lazy delivery of the boy's words caught even Ibiki off-guard, his pristine, imposing mask briefly shattering in their aftermath. He quickly got back on track, staring down at Gaara.

"That's a very sudden- "

"I choose to fail."

Gaara yet again cut him off, continuing to zigzag the pen around his fingers. He placed a bored looking hand on his chin as he did so, tired eyes more focused on the writing utensil than anything to do with Ibiki. It was almost like he was in a different reality, completely disconnected from the consequences that would befall him in this one.

"Wow, I'm sure everyone in this room thinks your very cool Gaara but I'm here to tell you- "

_**Snap!**_

Gaara slammed the pencil against the table with such force that it launched the led onto the ground. Its wood foundation splintered over itself as Gaara snapped to life with enough manic energy that Ibiki, battle-scarred, shaped by combat Ibiki, flinched slightly.

"Isaid I choose to fail so I choose to fail. I do not wish to interact with you or your pointless dribble any longer than what I have already allowed so stay silent." He said.

Ibiki stayed silent for a little while before he began glowering at the boy. If this were under any other conditions, he would've fully let loose an ANBU-boot camp level lashing upon the boy. For now though, he let Gaara's insolence go unchecked. To engage with him further would take too much time and probably end with him refusing to speak further anyway.

"There's always one." He grumbled to himself, beginning to walk upwards towards the higher rows. His eyes scanned the lanes, looking over the students one by one before settling upon a target that seemed unspecific.

"You over there. You're next."

He motioned towards Naruto's general area, but just that by itself was a problem as Hinata's name had also been written down for her team and she was sitting just by him. Ibiki's language and hand gestures had not been specific, meaning a bone-chilling stiffness briefly ran over the ninjas. This was mainly irrational, seeing as they'd both be asked eventually, but it was still understandably uncomfortable to not know whether you were going to have to make a life-changing decision or just watch someone else do so. There was also a minor detail that intensified their strife…

And that was that Hinata was going to choose to become a chunin.

From the outside looking in, this seemed like an impossibility. There was no way shy, frail, stuttering Hinata Hyuga would even _think _about doing something like that, but she was. Her index fingers, burdened by guilt, pressed together erratically, pale eyes staying locked towards the floor. She wasn't choosing the option because she wanted the chunin position that bad (at least that's what she told herself), she was choosing it because she couldn't afford not to. For a Hyuga heiress, the future head of the main house to be a genin for eternity? It was disgraceful, an utter embarrassment to both her clan and herself. However, there was not just social stigma on the line with her decision, no. Hinata could deal with prejudice, hell, just last night she'd overhead clan elders making bets about if she was even capable of passing the first stage. The real worry came in the form of banishment from the clan.

If a Hyuga were to underperform on the level that her failing would be, it would lead to dire consequences. She'd either be demoted down to the branch house or outright orphaned, the latter meaning the forceful deactivation of her byakugan. Not only was this process painful, but in the shinobi world, it was a fate that ranked below death itself. Those with deactivated byakugans were known as "two-tones", named for their inability to see in anything more than black and white after their sight was rehabilitated. For even vaguely high-up Hyugas, becoming a "two-tone" was not uncommon if they were to fail the chunin exams three times in a row. Hinata's fate was essentially sealed if she was barred from ever entering them again.

Hinata waited on baited breath for Ibiki to speak, a slight squeak escaping her lungs as she tucked her shaky hands to her chest. If she didn't accept this choice, her life would be over. Lush greens would turn to dull greys, subtle violet to a bitter black. The flush sunlight of the early sunrise would become indescribable from any other time of day. The beauty of the world…gone completely, with Hinata probably stuck doing farm work in a tepid, colorless country side. She'd do anything to avoid that, even if it cost Kiba and Shino their own dreams.

"Naruto Uzumaki, what do you choose?" Ibiki asked.

Hinata breathed a small exhale of relief, knowing that she had at least a few more seconds of not making a decision. Meanwhile, Naruto continued starring downward. He could feel Sasuke and Sakura's attention latching upon him, even if neither were actually looking at him. He breathed in slightly, letting the air run across the inside of his cheeks before sighing.

"I choose to fail."

Hinata's eyes widened, briefly silencing her internal pondering to look at the boy a couple of seats beside her.

_But Naruto, how could you-_

Ibiki scoffed, then he snorted, then he laughed. It was a blood-chilling contrast, seeing a man who had been so viciously cerebral prior absolutely _losing his shit_ over what was a relatively benign statement. Naruto looked up at him with a tepid glare, folding the edge of his lip into his mouth in what looked like a half-pout.

"What's so funny?" He asked, the simmering anger in his tone meaning it come out more like a growl than anything else.

"I just expected a little bit more deliberation from the boy who so famously stated to anyone who would listen that he was going to become the next Hokage." Ibiki said, acutely summarizing what everyone who knew Naruto was thinking.

Sasuke's eyes drifted towards his friend, not a single speck of adulation in them despite the fact he'd essentially been told he passed. Sakura finally turned around to look, a look of surprise on her face. She genuinely thought Naruto would at the very least flirt with the idea of taking the position. With all that talk about becoming Hokage, the one apparent constant in his life, how could he _not_?

"Honestly, I'm a little disappointed. Every time a Hokage announces that they will soon choose a successor, the betting pool on it goes through the roof with interest. I was planning to add your name as a joke candidate, maybe make a little bit of novelty ryo on the side ya know?"

"That's pretty funny." Naruto said back, actually smiling somewhat.

"Oh, but it's not why I'm laughing Naruto. I find it hilarious that for _thirteen years_, you were essentially a one-goal individual, that was **all **you cared about and now, when the chips are down and you can really pursue it, you give it up. And for what? "The power of friendship?" Give me a break."

"You're clueless."

Naruto's slight smile faded, a more lukewarm expression of irritation replacing it. This took Ibiki off-guard somewhat. He'd expected a boisterous show of defiance from the Uzumaki boy, not the low, drowsy one he was currently receiving.

"How so?"

"No one with any sense would want to become Hokage with those choices."

Naruto attempt to mumble but his fiery tone was unable to keep up the cool and collected façade. He quickly began flaring up at his own words, looking upward Ibiki with an unmistakable spark in his eyes. The memories that were fueling this, however, were the furthest thing from warm. Instead they were damp and blisteringly cold, consisting of shattered ice and aching bones, split blood and crackling lightning.

"_**Well, let me change the question, **__**why **__**do you want to be the Hokage?"**_

"_**To lack a purpose in this world…it's a truly awful feeling." **_

"_**My dream is to protect the people precious to me, the ones who kept me from feeling that." **_

"You can make fun of it all you want, but that's really what's important. Those who break the rules might be scum, but people who abandon their friends are worse than scum!" Naruto barked, nearly looking as if he was about to pounce up and punch Ibiki right in his face.

"You're delusional. Do you think any of the Hokage protected the Village by making daisy-chains and "talking it out" Konoha's history is built on blood and war, because those leaders had the guts to do what was right by the village even when it meant making a decision that didn't please everybody."

The room noticed Ibiki's cadence become slightly more serious. That wasn't to say he hadn't been before, but there had clearly been an element of performance in his previous interrogations. Now, the lines between the "interrogative" drill-sergeant Ibiki and the real, hardened soldier became that much murkier. Despite this shift in demeanor though, Naruto remained unphased.

"You're still not getting it! How can I put my dream over either of theirs' huh?" Naruto angrily motioned to both Sasuke and Sakura. "To be Hokage is to care for everyone and everything in the village and make it better for the people who live here. A Hokage who made it to where he is on the broken backs of the people around him is a Hokage in rank only!"

Ibiki's face stayed stagnant for a few seconds, as if he were made out of stone. This actually worked better in unsettling Naruto than any reply could, the Uzumaki boy backing down slightly in caution of what Ibiki would do next. After a few more tense seconds of silence, Ibiki brought his hand up to his bandana and began unwrapping it. The blue cloth was swiftly removed from his head, revealing the contents that lay underneath it. What he revealed was a set of deep, darkly colored scars.

A collective gasp was let out by the room as they observed the sight. It was almost like the scars had replaced any semblance of hair on his head, veins of deep-rooted yet well-worn scare tissue running over his skull like a pulsating wrist. Suddenly, the bandanna became entirely justified in the minds of the ninjas who had previously thought it unnecessary.

"Do you know how much I had to sacrifice, how much _I had to see_, to end up where I am today, Naruto?" Ibiki said, voice barley above a whisper.

The sharp intake of his breath indicated that this low tone was not going to last until even his next word. This was accurate, as Ibiki let loose with a verbally venomous lashing that was delivered at a higher volume than any of his previous.

"_But please_, educate me on the morals of a shinobi. I'm sure you know better. I'm sure good intentions will heal the village because there's _nothing you can't achieve with enough good intentions. _It's a one-size fits all solution to everything isn't it?! Just slap some good intentions on it and it'll be as good as new! Hey, why don't you pass me some of those good intentions so I can fix **my fucked-up head**?" He yelled, force of his voice nearly physically pushing Naruto back.

What he didn't realize was that by attempting to match the boy in a firefight, he was only giving him more warmth to fuel his own flame. Ibiki wasn't dumb. He hadn't just got in a screaming match with a thirteen-year-old genin purely because of his emotions. He was still attempting to bait Naruto into changing his mind, but, if he was being truly honest with himself, he may have taken a more difficult course of action than intended. Naruto scoffed at his words, slamming his hands down against the desk.

"Oh, you turned the hot water up too high in the shower, big deal!" He snarled.

More flashes ran through his head.

Rain.

Steel.

_Tools._

"I know the world's not nice; I know it's not fair! That doesn't mean I have to help it be that way and if you think it does, you're a lost cause! This isn't me being a pushover or whatever, this is me being selfish. If I have to throw my friends away to become Hokage, _then what's the even the point?_! If I can't even help my friends, what chance do I have of helping the village huh?!"

Silence clouded over the classroom, not a single word emerging into the resting abyss of dialogue. Practically every eye in the classroom was poised upon Naruto, but his own were locked squarely upon Ibiki. The jonin bit against his lip, realizing that the more heated the discussion got, the more it favored Naruto. However, even with his rational thoughts trying to cool them, the scorching rebuttals continued to stay on the tip of his tongue and the longer he kept it shut, the more they burnt it. A few seconds later, he realigned his vision and looked forward at Naruto with a wilting glare.

"You're a fool."

Was all he said. He meant it.

With a rough grumble he turned back to his clipboard, running a finger through the names.

"And lastly we have- "

He searched around for his intended target, only to let out a small laugh when he found her sitting at only arm's length from him.

"Hinata Hyuga. Now, what is your- "

"I choose to fail!" Hinata yelled before he could even finish speaking.

Ibiki's eyes became wide, while Neji looked down at her with slight surprise. The jonin man quickly recomposed himself, further evaluating her answer with disappointment. When she'd came into the room, she'd seemed infinitely nervous, constantly fidgeting to the point she looked uncomfortable in her own skin. As the test had dragged on, she'd clearly gotten more and more anxious to the point that Ibiki had almost found it endearing. That being said, he had, quite vindictively mind you, saved her specifically for last on this section of the test, knowing she'd be one of the most entertaining to see crack under the pressure. It was alot like a child saving his most favorite food to try and prepare himself for the flavor, which here came in the form of the fear and insecurity of the heiress to one of Konoha's most powerful clans.

But here she was now, making her answer before Ibiki had even had a chance to mess around with her. She was still clearly nervous, hell, her eyes were practically glued shut on account of the fact she'd most likely immediately start to cry if she were to open them too wide, but she was also appeared too lost in her own head for Ibiki to properly get a word in. He hoped he was mistaken, but from what he could tell, this answer was most likely going to be final.

"You are aware of what happens to people of your _clan status_ under these circumstances, Ms. Hyuga?" He asked, attempting to use a formal tone to try and snap her awake.

"Y-yes!" She shouted back.

Ibiki wanted to try and pry the vault that was her lack of confidence open, but he imagined it would do more to irritate him than satisfy his sadistic side. Hinata had literally balled herself up like a turtle, collar of her hoodie covering the underside of her face while her head rested against her knees. Her eyes were snapped shut, angled so low that Ibiki could only truly make out the back of her head. Everything else was locked away, lost to the confines of her nervousness. And this was supposed to be the next head of the Hyuga clan…

He reached into his pocket, retrieving both a cigarette and a lighter. His staunchly steely-eyed expression melted away, leaving an animated portrait of exacerbation and fatigue in its wake. This was gently alleviated when he took the first puff of the cigarette, but it was still a far cry from the stoic, sometimes aggressive Ibiki that had been previously roaming the halls. He looked over at Naruto, attempting to glare but simply being too weary to properly execute it.

"Thanks to your inspirational speech Naruto, you've really fucked up my fun. It's over now. Done. Finished."

His tone was suddenly lazy, bringing a slight weariness upon the candidates as he walked up to the front of the room. The dull weave of the cigarette smoke ran over his features, fading out to nothing as it fizzled through the air. He grabbed an eraser and began scribbling the names off the blackboard with a bored arm.

"This was a trick question. Any team who's selected member chose to fail passes to the next stage. Anyone who's didn't, you fail but you can come back next time. The chunin exams instill the necessary skills needed to be a chunin. Chief among those is comradery and a loyalty to your squad mates. That is why the ones who offered themselves up as sacrifices pass." Ibiki explained, clearly reciting a script he had been given.

Silence stayed in the room, further annoying him.

"You can speak."

A mixture of cheers and arguments rang out, alternating between the teams whose candidate had offered themselves up and ones who had tried to take the promotion immediately. Naruto, who been lifelessly balancing his head on his palm, looked up bemused. He had locked himself in a trance and hadn't heard what Ibiki had been saying, with only the sheer escalation in noise being able to snap him out of it. His turned over to Sasuke with a questioning gaze, only to find the Uchiha smiling brighter than he potentially had ever seen him.

"What happened?" He asked, beginning to feel a tiny bit creeped out.

"We passed to the next stage. _You _passed to the next stage." Sasuke said, quickly correcting himself.

It took a few seconds for the words to fully take hold in Naruto's mind. This period of time was entirely too long, leading to Sasuke temporarily thinking that Naruto had had a stroke. Then, out of absolutely nowhere, Naruto started grinning. At first, it was a slight grin. A "cloudy but the suns kind of visible" grin. Then it began to continually escalate, becoming wider and wider until Naruto was beaming with enough force that Sasuke actually felt a tingle of heat on his skin.

"_Oh my god, I can still become Hokage!_" He screamed, thrusting his arms up into the air in victory.

His motions forced Sasuke to lean back somewhat as to not get slapped in the face by the rampaging bundle of energy that Naruto had transformed into. Otherwise, he probably would've hugged him. He would never in a million years admit it to his face, but…even in the aftermath of his speech, Sasuke had not been particularly excited about moving onto the next round without him.

"_**Yes! **_I can't believe we passed!" Naruto yelled triumphantly, clearly so stunned he was saying whatever popped into his brain first. It was for this reason that what he proceeded to say may have been forgivable.

"I can't either." Sasuke laughed.

"And we passed because something I did!" Naruto continued.

Sasuke's face dropped.

"Well…"

"You guys did jack shit, but that's okay because **I saved it**!"

"Let's not get carried away here-"

A sudden rustling of the desk beside them brought both Sasuke and Naruto's attention away from their conversation. A flash of violet sped past Naruto's eyes, before the boy suddenly found something clutching against him hard enough to nearly discharge the wind out of him. Looking down from the vice grip, he found Hinata latched onto him. However, she was not the same nervous, quiet Hinata that he had met before. Instead, she was comically bawling her eyes out, tears flushing outward at speeds faster than most waterfalls were capable of. Her gaze was far off, indicating that the sudden turnaround of emotions had been too much for her brain too handle. She clearly didn't even know where she was, much less who she was holding onto.

"_**TheirnotgonnatakemyeyesIstillhavemyeyesohmygodigettokeepmycolorohmygod!" **_

Her words were jumbled, stumbling out of her mouth with literally no filter. This acted in strange synchronization with her tears, which were so plentiful that they were literally beginning to dampen the front of Naruto's jacket. The Uzumaki had at first thought it was kind of cute. He looked up at Sasuke with a small smile, almost braggadocios about the situation. This look lasted for around five seconds until karma kicked in and Hinata _dug _her hands into him. Naruto's body folded like a deflated balloon, eyes widening as a side effect. His previous chill energy was replaced with a more frantic one, as he cried out in pain.

"_Sasuke! Get her off, get her off!" _

Neji walked through the halls of the exam, being quick to exit the area once Ibiki had dismissed them. At first, the stage had been interesting enough but that ultimatum had quickly sucked the energy out of it. Not only had it been fake, but Ibiki hadn't even been willing to stick to his "zero equals a fail" rule on account of the fact that he didn't give enough of a shit to actually mark the work. It was clear to Neji that he had only really cared about bit where he got to yell at them.

"Seriously anything you want Choji and we'll give it to you." Ino's distinct voice rang out from his front

"Really?"

"Yeah bud. If you hadn't been lucky, you'd be a forever genin right now."

There was Shikamaru's

"Okay, you guys pay fifty percent of my bill when we go get barbeque tonight!"

"…Look, when we said anything- "

The voices of the other candidates melted past him as he trudged along, attempting to exit the exam building before his team could catch up to him-

"_**Neeeeeeeeeeji!**_"

-an absurd pipe-dream he quickly realized was impossible thanks to Lee's apparent dojutsu level range of sight. He barreled through the crowds like a torpedo, eventually crashing onto Neji in a hug. The Hyuga boy stayed completely still, hoping that Lee's brain was so primordial that if he did so, the boy would cease to be able to see him much like a frog. Tenten quickly appeared at his side, all smiles now that she was secure in her position as opposed to before when she had threatened to blow him up.

"_Hey Neji_." She said, tone seeping with the awkwardness that came when their last interaction involved, once again, **her threatening to blow him up**.

"What do you two want?" He asked quietly, barley willing to even shoot the tow a glance of acknowledgment.

At the seriousness of his tone, Tenten straightened herself out from the overly-cheerful act she'd been putting on while Lee dropped the hug and shifted over next to her.

"Look, I know we all get to pass and everything, but thanks for what your answer. I mean, you didn't even know- "

Neji snorted, cutting off her thanks. He looked over at her with an expression that conveyed only pity and a slight twinge of distain, a far cry from the earnest friendship that she had been offering him.

"Do you honestly think I didn't realize it was trick question? With a rule system that emphasized "teamwork" as much Ibiki's did, I genuinely don't know how you couldn't have. Well, Lee I understand …I expected a bit more from you Tenten."

Teten's face shifted to a glare.

"What's that supposed to mean?" She asked bitterly, knowing exactly what it was supposed to mean.

"What is that supposed to mean?" Lee asked _her_, politely.

While he was by no means stupid (especially book-wise), Lee obviously had trouble deciphering even basic language riffs when they weren't phrased in the same strangely formal tone he always used.

"He's calling you dumb Lee." Tenten replied, not taking her glower off Neji.

Lee quickly snapped into a glare as well, slightly embarrassed at his belated reaction to the insult.

"I have no clue as to why the two of you continue to pursue me as some kind of ally beyond what I am formally bound to do, so please let me illustrate our relationship. Had I not realized what Morino was attempting to do, I would've sent both of you off to rot even if I had to do the next stage entirely by myself."

Tenten was caught off-guard by his cruelness and began looking at the ground dejectedly. On the flipside, Lee continued to get angrier, clenching his taped fists as he yelled at Neji.

"Your actions are dishonorable of your clan Neji Hyuga! There's not a single great shinobi who got where they are by shunning their associates away!"

Neji stayed completely deadpan, not even bothering to look at the boy who was essentially _screaming _into his face.

"You have to realize Lee, an untalented deadender and a parentless street rat are not two people I would ever be willing to be associated with. I'll see you both tomorrow."

He began to walk off, completely disregarding any further lectures that Lee continued to yell at him. As he sunk into the inner-reaches of the crowd that had built up around the halls, not even the slightest fleck of regret showed up on his face. Although, there was one newly-informed thought that ran through his mind. When he'd first been paired with his teammates, he thought they were the lowest of the low when it came to being deadweight. Now he realized that, while (in his mind) neither Lee or Tenten were at all serviceable ninja, most of the others were deadweights _to the deadweights_.

The chunin position was as good as his.

Team Seven let out a collective sigh of relief as they reached the outside, the feeling of sun being a refreshing addition on their skin after the hours spent inside. Ibiki had said that their next class started tomorrow and would go on for a number of days, so the responsible thing to do would be to get home early and have a nice, light dinner before going to slee-

"You guys want to go to Ichiraku?" Naruto asked, receiving an instant nod from Sasuke and Sakura.

"I'll need it after all that stress. Seriously, take in how I look with pink hair because tomorrow it's all going grey." Sakura joked, running a finger through the bright locks of her hair.

"Should we go invite Kakashi?" Sasuke asked, mentally remembering the path to the man's home in his head.

Sakura nodded, but Naruto held up a quick finger.

"Hold on, I'm so fucking thirsty and I think I saw a vender a little while back."

"Vender" was Naruto speak for vending machine.

"Oh, get me a water bottle." Sakura asked, reaching into her pockets and taking out her purse.

She dug through it to find the necessary change, while Sasuke raised an eyebrow.

"Naruto, you tried this before. The Ichiraku guy goes ballistic if you bring in outside drinks, just buy it at his shop."

The boy didn't listen, gladly holding a palm out for Sakura's money before turning to Sasuke with little care for the inevitable screaming match that was now instore for his future.

"One, Mr. Ramen's a cheap-ass motherfucker and sells water bottles for, like, five ryo more than you get them at any vender. Two, we'll just drink them while he's not looking, it'll be fine."

"Bullshit. Maybe Sakura can do it, but you drink with your whole mouth over the lid. Even if he doesn't notice the sound, it'll still take you three seconds flat to unstick your lips which means you'll basically be having to read his movements three seconds in advance _on top_ of then hiding the water bottle- "

"Shut up, **shut up!**" Naruto yelled as he turned away to the direction of the vending machine. "I don't have time for your water bottle physics class, I'm thirsty. You guys go on ahead, I'll meet you at Ichiraku."

Sasuke begrudgingly did as told, while Sakura followed alongside him. Naruto quickly dashed towards the machine, running alongside the exams building before finding it sitting by itself on a rough patch of dirt. Naruto almost thought it looked lonely, _almost _because it was a vending machine and not a human with legitimate feelings. He ran up the machine, quickly crouching to stuff both he and Sakura's change into the coin slot.

Vending machines weren't exactly what you'd called "well-designed" in the shinobi world. They were large metallic boxes with glass outsides that displayed the snacks that lined its shelves. Speaking of shelves, each one was wooden with a number painted onto its front in shiny black paint. Each of these shelves corresponded to a button on the outside that had the same number painted onto it. These buttons were connected to a string that, when pulled, would pull the shelf out from under the snack and drop it down to the bottom of the vending machine. However, as Naruto was finding out now, this process was always finicky and unstable. The strings lock that released after the coins were detected by the weight sensor of the machine, refused to go off even after Naruto tossed an additional amount of money into the slot. He thrashed and clawed at the button, attempting to try and force the string to detach the shelf. When that didn't work, he moved onto trying to trigger the sensor by shaking the machine. When two minutes passed, this had begun to resemble the five stages of grief.

A footstep echoed out behind him, shooting Naruto's glance over to its person. Without even taking a few seconds to look at who it was, he immediately shouted:

"Hey, do you know how to get this thing working?"

The figure stepped into view, more clearly jogging Naruto's memory. It was the boy who he had sat next to in the exams, with the ashy grey hair and glasses. When actually focused upon, he looked a lot older than he had when only seen in the corner of Naruto's eye. At the very least he was sixteen, but Naruto guessed even older judging by his height and facial features. He stepped forward, a slight smirk on his face as he reached over to the machine.

"Oh, this one? This is easy, they forgot to turn the master lock off. So just go- "

He gently fiddled with the controls of the machine, pressing the five button in twice before hitting the nine once and then the eight twice. A sharp click emanated from the machine, much to Naruto's amazement. The spectacled boy smiled, holding a hand out towards the buttons.

"Now just pick what you want."

Naruto pulled the water button twice, the two bottles rolling to the entrance flap along with the ice cubes that had been stationed with them. The other boy quickly inputted another button combination that was too quick for Naruto to see and reinstated the lock with another sharp clicking sound from the machine. Naruto's turned to him with amazement, blue eyes resembling the color of the water packaging in the sunlight.

"Woah, that's awesome! Are you the guy who built the vender?" Naruto asked, a stupid question when considering he'd literally just seen this guy in the exam rooms and it was unlikely that he was a vending machine builder as well as a maintenance worker in his spare time.

The boy rubbed a hand behind his head, laughing to himself as he did.

"Nah. My name's Kabuto Yakushi, you might know me as the one-man genin?" He said.

Naruto blinked blankly.

"Nope."

Kabuto smiled in self-embarrassment, thrusting a palm against his forehead.

"Ah, I've exposed myself for nothing."

Naruto crossed his arms with a small smirk.

"Now you've got to tell me what that title means!"

Kabuto looked over at the boy through his spectacles, as if he was gauging whether he should do as instructed and just accept it or try and weasel his way out of this conversation. He chose the former.

"I'm called that because I've taken the chunin exam six times, this is my seventh. The first time I did with my team, I failed but they passed. The second time, I subbed in for a team that had had a member pass the last year. From then on, I've taken the exam by myself only."

This explained why Naruto had not seen Ibiki interact with him, as he was probably ineligible for the question on regards of not even having anyone to screw over in the first place. Judging by his phrasing, he'd been immediately passed so Naruto struck up a different avenue of conversation.

"Wait, six times? How old are you."

"Eighteen, turning nineteen this year."

Naruto's eyes widened.

"And you've done the exams six times?"

"Yep, the most attempts of anyone in history I've been told." He said, harshly whispering "_by a lot of people_" under his breath.

The Uzumaki's eyes angled themselves, as he found this statistic hard to believe. He wasn't particularly savvy at estimation but even he could tell that that seemed extraordinarily low. Surely there was some old loser who was forty-five and kept doing it every year. Then again, he didn't see anyone like that.

"Really?"

"Yep. They bar you from the exams once you turn twenty-two but everyone aside from me usually calls it quits before they even reach eighteen. I'm the only one who's stuck with it."

Kabuto seemed disturbingly cheery considering he was currently describing how much of a complete loser he was, but Naruto didn't have it in him to judge the boy. If he wasn't careful, he could turn out the exact same way.

"I'm sure you'll get it this time." He tried to encourage.

"Fingers crossed." Kabuto replied, giddily doing exactly what was described with an overly-jolly inflection in his voice.

It made him appear to be a little bit deluded, as judging from the hardened undercurrent in his voice, he had been figuratively "crossing his fingers" for so long that they may as well have been merged into one big finger. Kabuto quickly snapped back to a more grounded tone as he noticed Naruto heaving the two water bottles under his arms.

"Do you have somewhere you need to be?"

The remembrance of commitment visibly washed over his face, snapping Naruto into an upright posture.

"Oh shit! You're right, I gotta go meet my friends!" He explained, beginning to dash off.

As he did so, he briefly turned back, slinging the two water bottles under one arm while using the other one to wave back to Kabuto.

"Hey, I'll see you later Kabuto. Good luck on the exams!" He yelled, sprinting into the horizon.

Kabuto returned the wave with a smile, arm gently tilting like it was being controlled by a light breeze of air.

"You too!"

Naruto turned back forwards, continuing to run along into the village streets. Even the usual looks he got from the villagers did nothing to phase him, he was that much closer to being a chunin! The sun shining down on him was more than enough to accentuate the moment, recreating the whimsical feeling of running towards the end of year winter break. Only this time he actually had friends to spend it with…


	28. First Contact: The Forest Of Death

Kakashi gently opened the door of the restaurant, the smell of thick alcohol wafting through its walls immediately weaving themselves into the threads of his mask. The establishment had minimal lighting, obviously relying on the large glass storefront and street lights outside for a majority of its illumination. It was five in the afternoon, the same time the genin had been disembarked over to the third stage of the exams. In the meanwhile, Kakashi had been invited to meet with some of the other jonin teachers as a sort of "celebration". His exposed eye scanned over the room, trying to find his group.

"There he is."

The sound of a familiar voice beckoned his attention, Kakashi turning to find two jonin sitting at a four-seat table.

One was a man with spiky black hair and tan skin. A small, slicked straight beard ran around his face, connecting with his sideburns in a way that almost made it seem like he was wearing headgear. This was Asuma Sarutobi, the second child (and only son) of Hiruzen Sarutobi and leader of team 10. Depending on how much nicotine was in his system, his demeanor could range from sharp as a tack to completely dopey. Considering this restaurant didn't allow smoking indoors, Kakashi guessed that he was currently closer to the former. The other ninja next to him was a girl with long, bushy black hair. She had scarlet red eyes that appeared absolutely striking no matter the lighting they were exposed in. This was Kurenai Yuhi, the sensei of team 8. She was renowned for her genjutsu prowess, being considered one of, if not the best genjutsu user in the leaf.

Kakashi gestured a slight wave to the pair, quickly making his way over to the table and sitting down. Even though he took the side with no one next to him, Kakashi still felt somewhat cramped when he dropped into his seat. The table was small and rectangular, with chairs that had been poorly crafted. Their design took center stage, at the expense of even a baseline of comfortability. The back rests of the seats were made up of a rectangular frame that had been filled in by spiraling tendrils of wood, which made them aesthetically pleasing, but also meant that when you sat against them, it almost felt like you were being pressed against a cookie cutter due to the gaps. Kakashi wasn't too bothered by it however. When Asuma had offered to arrange the restaurant booking, he'd expected it to be cheap because, despite descending from one of the wealthiest families in Konoha as well as being a well-accomplished ninja in his own right, Asuma was cheap as shit. Kakashi respected this, because he was also _cheap as shit_ and would've done the exact same thing.

"How are you doing Kakashi?" Asuma asked, as the other jonin settled himself against the cheese-grater like chairs.

"Alright, could be better." Kakashi said.

The other two reacted as if he'd said "great, feeling peachy" because at this point, it was odder to them if Kakashi didn't introduce himself as "could be better".

"You want a drink?" Kurenai asked, sliding the lily-white drinks menu across to him.

Kakashi quietly thanked her, opening it up and gazing through its contents with an inquisitive look.

"I think I'll have…" He paused flicking through the pages. "Do they have virgin drinks here?"

Kurenai immediately frowned, while Asuma laughed.

"Great, so I'm the only one who's going to be drinking alcohol tonight?" She said.

"Looks like it." Kakashi said back, not taking his eyes off the menu.

"Their one page three by the way. Near the soft drinks" Asuma added quickly, prompting Kakashi to flick over to the specified page.

"Honestly, I have no idea how you can smoke a pack of cigarettes a day but somehow think that abstaining from alcohol every six months is supposed to bring you closer to a "sage diet"." Kurenai commented, looking at the man to her side.

"Well, what's better, smoking and drinking or smoking and not drinking?" Asuma laughed back.

Kurenai looked at him unimpressed.

"Not smoking and not drinking."

"That's fair." Asuma mused, before quickly turning it back around. "Actually, maybe I should really stop calling it a "sage diet". I mean, Jiraiya's probably the "sageiest" sage in the world and he gets fucked up on the regular."

Kakashi snorted, while Kurenai attempted to suppress her own laughter on account of not wanting to validate Asuma's vulgarity. The Sarutobi man giggled to himself, clearly remembering memories long past.

"God, he's a character. Didn't he fill in for Minato one-time Kakashi?"

The copy ninja laughed to himself, placing the menu down upon the table as he looked up at the other two jonin.

"Yep. Spent the whole day in a deck chair doing nothing and then payed us 500 ryo each to tell sensei he did a good job."

Both Kurenai and Asuma let out a chorus of loud laughter, which was intensified by how immediately true they realized the story was. Kurenai's died down first, piercing red eyes looking up at Kakashi with a trace of humor still lingering in them.

"Why didn't you ask him to sub in again? Surely it would've been alright money for a genin?"

"I wish. Obito was just so bad at lying that sensei managed to figure him out. Rin also got him pissed because she tried to gouge him for more, so it's not like he was really in a hurry to teach us again anyway."

Kurenai giggled slightly, whereas Asuma burst into what could only be described as "crying-laughter." It was probably a full thirty seconds before he came to his wits, with traces of amusement still lingering in his tone.

"Ah, man. It feels like everyone in our grade has at least _one _Jiraiya story. Kurenai, do you remember when- "

"_Hello my friends!_"

A loud voice boomed across the restraint, drawing the attention of everyone, at least for a second. The jonin group were the only people who's gaze really stayed fixated on the point of noise, the loud yelling coming from a bowl-cutted man dressed in all green. He had large eyebrows that dropped over his eyes, causing his pupils to look like the dot at the end of the exclamation mark. His body language radiated energy, this becoming more and more prominent as he bounced along to his seat, sitting down next to Kakashi with enough force to shake the table.

This was Might Guy. He was the leader of team 13, or, as it had been egotistically dubbed, "Team Guy". He also happened to be the self-proclaimed _eternal rival _of Kakashi Hatake. This rivalry supposedly stemmed from a variety of factors, but all it really came down to was that Guy had been desperate for a rematch after Kakashi beat him in their first chunin exams. Kakashi had quickly manipulated this desperation to try and satiate his own personal amusement. He'd claimed that if Guy was capable of defeating him in "the hundred-yard challenge", he would grant him a one-on-one rematch in an area of Guy's choosing.

Contrary to its imposing title, the "hundred-yard challenge" was a series of one-hundred completely menial challenges that Kakashi would improvise ninety percent of the time. Each would score one point for their victory, with the ultimate winner coming with who could get one-hundred points first. If Guy won, he would receive his rematch. If Kakashi won, the scores would be reset back to zero. This had happened many times at this point, with the closest Guy ever came being "85-100". The current score was "62-68" in Kakashi's favor.

"Good to see you Asuma!" Guy said, shaking his hand before quickly repeating the same pleasantry with both Kurenai and Kakashi.

Upon shaking the copy ninja's hand however, he quickly became gravely serious.

"Will there be another contest tonight Kakashi? I know you sometimes like to surprise me with them, but I should know whether this will purely be a jolly night spent with friends or if it will need an appliance of my skills!"

"How would he know ahead of time? You do realize he just makes most of them up on the spot." Kurenai said, raising an eyebrow.

Guy thrust his arms in the air, pure luck dictating that he didn't wack Kakashi over the head as he did so.

"No! Sure, maybe a few of them but the "Hundred-yard challenge" is a time-honored tradition that has run in the Hatakes for _generations_!"

Guy was currently dramatically leaned in so far across the table that he could no longer see Kakashi next to him. That meant he missed Kakashi wincing his eye and shaking his head as to show to Kurenai and Asuma that this was some bullshit story he (ironically) had probably made up on the spot.

"So, does that mean you're the first non-Hatake to take the challenge, Guy?" Asuma asked, attempting to suppress the comicality in his voice.

Guy's expression immediately became stern, as he held his hand up to his heart.

"Yes, and it is an **honor**!" He said, so serious that he almost became out of breath at just the simple sentence.

He resembled a solider who's memories and understanding of both himself and the world around him was sprawling and wide. The water of the ocean crashed along the rock he was standing on, as the flickering sunset reflected into the crevasses of the crashing waves. It could bring a tear to his eye…

Then Kakashi grabbed him by the shoulder, reminding him that he was in some shitty restaurant that served the kids food and the cheapest mixed drinks you could find. A far cry from his sunlit beach for sure.

"We'll see if it comes up. For now, what are you going to order? Something alcoholic perhaps- "Kakashi asked.

Guy looked offended at even the suggestion, vigorously shaking his head like a dog trying who'd wet his fur.

"No, no, no! Only non-alcoholic drinks for me. Alcohol is a product of the devil I say, invented to extinguish the flames of youth before they can truly prosper!" He exclaimed. "My sensei was the most stoic man in the world, but after a few drinks, it was like he became possessed!"

Kurenai frowned, slumping in her chair as she realized she truly was going to be the only person who drank a non-virgin drink. A few seconds later, a waiter appeared, noticing that the table had finally been filled out. He wrote down their orders for drinks and food, which consisted almost entirely of sharable appetizers and virgin tonics, except for Kurenai who ordered a cosmo. As the waiter walked away, she noticed Asuma mischievously starring at her through the corner of his eye. It was almost like he was mocking her…

"It's _my_ drink." She prematurely defended.

"Yeah, because it's red." Asuma laughed.

Kurenai pouted, not exactly approaching the man's childish scrutiny.

"No, it's because it was the first cocktail I ever had. You should remember, you were there."

"But you only ordered it because it was red."

"Wrong."

"Right! If it was blue you wouldn't have ordered it."

"Wrong again!" Kurenai tried to argue.

Her position was noticeably weak when you took into account that everything from her jonin outfit to her curtains, the walls of her house, her civilian clothes incorporated red in some way. On the flip-side, Asuma only really found it mentionable in the same "bully the girl you like" way that was commonly utilized by fifth graders. It was understandable for kids in that bracket, but Kurenai and Asuma had been in the same genin team and "joined at the hip"-level best friends since early in the academy. Whereas Guy found this display of youth inspiring, Kakashi didn't much care for watching the two bicker like this even if it was harmless.

"How are you liking your team's exam chances?" Kakashi asked, temporarily putting a stop to the pointless argument.

"I imagine all three will be promoted chunin by the end of the exams!" Guy said with a fist bump, somehow managing to convince himself that his kids would be able to pull off a feat that had only been achieve once before (that being every member of a specific team becoming chunin in their first exam).

"Honestly?" Kakashi asked him, hoping that he was not actually deluded enough to believe that.

"No! But I want to project confidence in my beloved team so I will not give an honest answer." Guy replied, strangely transparent in how much he was bullshitting. Kakashi guessed the reason was kind of endearing though.

"If you want an honest answer Kakashi, I think Hinata and Kiba fail this segment while Shino makes it through to the next." Kurenai explained, drawing outrage from Guy.

"Kurenai! Have you lost any assurance in your children?!"

"No, I just think this stage is difficult and the other two aren't as suited to it."

Asuma raised an eyebrow, ceasing the fiddling he'd been doing with his fork.

"Wait, what stage is today?" He asked.

"The forest of death." Kurenai said with a sly smile.

The Sarutobi man's face immediately lit up with a face that outwardly was filled with good humor, there was a deceptive undercurrent that read closer to PTSD than anything funny. Kakashi and Guy both recognized why this was. The story among their generation, becoming forfeit to numerous rumors and urban legends around the nature of the event.

" _Oh ho ho_." Asuma hummed to himself.

The story went that Asuma had smuggled his first pack of cigarettes in with him as he entered the third stage. Unfortunately, he'd been unaware of how to actually smoke them, but wanted to do so anyway because it was quote-on-quote "badass". After sneaking off to do so in peace, he'd attempted to light the smoke with a fire jutsu, which worked, but also set a little bit too much of the cigarette on fire. This led to Asuma burning the absolute fuck out of his top lip, while also breaking into an insatiable coughing fit because he'd literally inhaled the contents of a flaming stick of nicotine. His team with a one-man disadvantage as Asuma had to be taken off ground for medical assistance. This also meant that he had to retake the exams next year, subbing into Kakashi's team (who had a free spot due to Kakashi passing in his first attempt).

"Even with the war and everything, the most painful moments of my life was sitting in my bed with my charred-ass lip, waiting for dad to come home, cause he was Hokage at that time too, so of course they needed to tell him why his son had somehow managed to burn his throat like that. I remember, it was like two minutes until nine and I heard the door open and then just- "Asuma temporarily paused to scrunch his face into something that more closely resembled Hiruzen. ""_ Asuma, get your druggie ass down here __**right fucking now!**_"

The sound of Asuma's (admittedly quite accurate) impression of his father sent a bolt of laughter through all three of his companions. Guy in particularly was _bellowing_ at the story, to the point that he was nearly slamming his hands against the table.

"Right? And then I didn't even get to do it the next year because they changed the stages around. The forest of death is a bunch of _bullshit_."

* * *

"The forest of death? What a bunch of bullshit." Naruto grumbled, walking along the sunset lit pathways while his team trailed behind him.

The boy's anger came from an actual reason, that being that the next stage would apparently last nearly a week. Considering what the last two stages had been, he was not exactly enthused at the possibility that this one could be similar, but with a massive time sink stuck on top of that.

The last of the more "industrialized" Konoha attributes began to fade away as they moved closer towards the forest. Storefronts gradually gave way to lanes of trees, whereas the occasional concrete sidewalk fully submit to the grasp of the soil. Sasuke stuck to himself, locking his hands in his pockets, while Sakura walked closer towards Naruto.

"They really couldn't have come up with a better name than the forest of death? It's so cliché." She murmured, which caught Sasuke's attention.

"It's basic rule of thumb that if you add "of death" as a suffix to something, that something probably doesn't contain much death, hence why it needs the suffix to spell it out." He explained.

"It's probably just some weird test that deduces how much _forest juice_ we need to drink to be a real ninja or something." Naruto grumbled.

Both of his teammates looked at him with raised eyebrows, not quite following his train of thought.

"Forest juice?" Sakura asked, not having the faintest idea what he was talking about.

Naruto was so engrossed in his own grumbling however, that he didn't even notice the question. It would have been a vast undertaking to try and snap him out of his current rant, with the boy continuing to gaggle on about "dumb names" and "stupid test stuff" but it was entirely doable. As the number of trees obscuring their view of the sky began to lessen along the forest path, a large looming figure came into sight. Its monolithic nature was strongly punctuated by the already-arrived genin who were standing around it, their positioning making it look like a place of worship.

Judging from its hulking mass and the audience of ninja it had gained, the trio presumed this must have been the forest of death. In all honesty, the suffix didn't seem quite so silly anymore. It seemed to take the shape of a circle, but even from far away, it stretched on so wide that none of Team 7 could truly grasp its shape. Large trees sprouted forth from the ground; bark dark with aging but clearly tougher than any of the fairer, weaker trees that surrounded it. Some of these trees reached high off the ground, taller than any building in the village which drew a definitive distinction between the regular forest land and the forest of death. It was like the forest had sprouted from the ground, writhing and flailing like a freshly born baby, before suddenly halting its progress before it started to cause extreme collateral to it's surroundings.

As the trio moved closer towards the area, they found a squad of what appeared to be chunin standing stationary on top of a long, large cut down tree whose base was now being used as an improvised podium. They also noticed a thin mesh gate that ran around the outside of the forest, various different signs having been hung onto it. Bold letters were printed onto those same signs, each containing a myriad of menacing phrases including "_**Keep out!**_" _**Warning: Danger" **_and "_**Unsupervised entry restricted for ninjas under jonin rank. You've been warned." **_

Sasukes' calculating gaze glanced over the forest as they drew closer. It was hard to tell, but from what he could make out of its general perimeter, he guessed the forest had to be at least ten kilometers in length unless it abruptly curved inward on the other side.

"Holy shit, those trees are tall." Naruto said, previously aggressive eyes now wide at the forest.

A small rustling brought the trios attention to their side where they found the sound ninja Sasuke had observed in the exams. His head was covered in tape, leaving only a single eye exposed. Fur had been draped down the spine of his long-sleeved jacket, resembling the quills of a hedgehog. His one visible eye stared down at Naruto for a creepily long amount of time, seconds passing as Team Seven waited for him to say something. He seemingly refused to, staying completely quiet in favor of simply staring a hole into Naruto's soul.

"Uh…you want something dude?" Naruto asked, obviously creeped out at the lanky weirdo who was looming over him.

The sound ninja suddenly sprung to life, piercing eye turning fluid as he held his arms out.

"My name _Dosu._ Do you know if _water_ where?" He asked, voice heavily accented.

Naruto and Sasuke both looked at him strangely, wondering if this was some weird joke. Sakura's more sociable instincts immediately kicked in in place of the pair, the kunoichi moving herself closer to the sound ninja to try and gauge what he'd said.

"Sorry, I didn't catch that. What did you say?"

His eye immediately filled with a mixture of frustration and embarrassment, arms (and too-long sleeves) flailing up in the air.

"Do you know if there is water?" He asked again.

"Water?" Sakura asked, still trying to discern his context.

"I think he's talking about forest juice." Naruto added unironically.

Sakura snapped back to him with a confused gaze.

"Okay, you've mentioned it two times now. What's forest juice?"

Naruto looked taken aback by the fact that she somehow did not know what forest juice was. He most likely would've told her though, had it not been for the sudden introduction of a feminine voice.

"Dosu. _Dosu_!" The voice called, drawing the attention of the sound boy.

From the inner-reaches of the crowd, a girl emerged, also from the sound village. Sasuke had also identified her as one of the other sound ninjas he'd seen in the previous stage, the one with the waterfall-like black hair. She quickly ran up the group with obvious concern that only intensified when she realized Dosu was interacting with people.

"Kin!" Dosu called out endearingly.

"Dosu, don't run off like that when you can't even speak the language." She scolded, quickly turning her attention to the other genin. "Sorry, he doesn't speak otsutsukish that well. He's trying to ask if you know where we could get water."

"I saw a stream a little bit down from here, you could probably make it before the deadline." Sakura said, pointing downward to the south of the group.

"Thanks, I appreciate it." Kin said, only for Dosu to run out in front of them and outstretch his arms like cat.

His sleeves hung down a good thirty centimeters from his hands, which could only be a complete sacrifice of autonomy for bullshit fashion in Sasuke's mind.

"Hugs for my friends. Sound culture!" He practically yelled, his response immediately getting a stern rise out of Kin.

"You don't have to hug him." She said.

This immediately triggered the contrarian side of Naruto's mind, and he immediately jumped into Dosu's hug.

"Nah, I'll hug him!"

"_Hooray_!" Dosu said, beginning to jump around with the other boy in his arms.

This was supremely awkward, not only because Naruto seemed to be doing it just to prove he could, but also because Dosu had a good foot of height on him. This meant Naruto was essentially held captive to the bouncing, in what Sasuke hypothesized would be a brilliant moment to "accidentally" drop him and break a bone. Luckily, Dosu seemed too good-natured to do something like that, with Kin eventually having to pull him away along with her as she marched towards the stream.

"Come on weirdo." She grumbled, while Dosu stayed silent, seemingly going cationic upon being removed from an area with other humans.

A cold, awkward silence transpired between Team 7. The self-consciousness of how simple-minded he'd just looked immediately washed over Naruto, the boys usual loose, carefree posture crumpling into a more tight, anxious pose.

"Wow, he was holding onto you real tight." Sasuke hummed.

"Shut up." Naruto mumbled back.

"Like an octopus." Sakura added, words being backed up by a humorous snort from the Uchiha.

"Hey, you shut up too! I'm just not rude and judgy like you guys, so why wouldn't I hug him?"

"If I asked you for a hug right now, would you hug me?" Sasuke asked, knowing Naruto didn't have the mental fortitude to fight back against this line of attack.

This was proven immediately right, as Naruto's face curled into one of disgust.

"_Ew_, no!"

"What? Why not, you hugged some random guy from the sound village why won't you hug me?" Sasuke asked, feigning hurt.

"Cause you stink, and I don't want to the grease from your gross greasy hair on me." Naruto replied matter-o-factly.

"What? I don't have greasy hair!"

Sasuke was no longer _feigning_ hurt.

"Do so. Your hair's like a waterfall of grease dude, just layer after layer after _layer_\- "

Sasuke quickly turned to Sakura, not used to Naruto managing to turn the tables on him to this extent.

"I don't have greasy hair, do I Sakura?" He asked.

The girl immediately retreated to the inner-section of her mind, seeking advice for the dilemma she had currently been put in.

_What do I say? _

_**Uh I don't know genius; maybe don't tell your crush you think he has disgusting greasy hair. **_

_But it is greasy though- _

_**Oh, it totally fucking is. I know it's probably just gel, but god, it's like every second of his life is spent just stepped out of the shower. It-**_

_Okay, I get it. I can't just tell a lie. _

_**You lie literally every day, dumbass and this is still in the "dropped my homework in a puddle" tier of lies. Just do it.**_

_Wait, how long have I been talking to you?_

"See, she's silent!" Naruto shouted with a heavy smile.

Sasuke looked away from his friends with a dejected look, mouth curving into a frown.

"Unbelievable."

"_No!_ I don't think your hair's greasy Sasuke, honestly!" Sakura practically screamed, but it was too little too late.

"Ah ha, you're just trying to be nice! The case is already closed, Sasuke has greasy hair!" Naruto bellowed, cackling the whole way.

The sound of his laugh briefly brought Sasuke back from his dejected banishment, the Uchiha turning to him with a renewed fire in his eyes.

"It's _not _greasy. Hell, it's not even grease, it's just gel!"

Naruto quite literally hand waved the counterargument away, turning to face the crowd of genin instead of his friend.

"I don't care if it's gel, water or whatever the fuck, grease is- "He paused, train of thought derailing as quickly as it had come.

Luckily for Sasuke, he appeared to have found a new subject of interest in the crowd, namely the silver-haired boy who was hovering around the outskirts of the huddled-up mob. Naruto perched himself up on his tippy-toes, for some reason thinking that would amplify his voice further before yelling out loudly:

" _**Hey, Kabuto!**_"

Kabuto's eyes locked with his (along with a half dozen people who wondered what this random thirteen-year-old was yelling about), the spectacled boy offering a large wave and sprightly smile in response. Naruto returned the wave, holding it for an awkward amount of time before Sakura's voice drew his attention.

"You know that guy?" She asked.

"Yeah, that's Kabuto. He helped me at the vender yesterday after my coin got stuck. He seems like a nice dude."

With the mention of a name, a previously withdrawn Sasuke took interest in what Naruto had been talking about.

"Wait, Kabuto Yakushi? The "one-man genin"?" He asked.

"Yeah, you know him?"

"I've heard about him. I don't know what you're doing hanging out with him though Naruto, he's a complete loser."

Even though it was not directed at him, the insult immediately turned Naruto's tone hostile. However, this was barely out of companionship for Kabuto. In all honesty, it was an instinctive reaction to the word which Naruto had heard directed at himself one too many times.

"Hey, don't say that." Naruto barked.

"What?! He is Naruto, it's just the truth."

"Why, cause he failed the chunin exam a bunch of times?" He snarled back, obviously not willing to take the premature answer as an answer at all.

"No. What kind of elitist do you think I am Naruto? I don't care about that." Sasuke responded, the slight offense in his tone immediately making Naruto feel bad. "It's because he's a total deadbeat. His mother runs the Konoha orphanage and his father's a major ambassador to the other Shinobi Nations. He says he wants to be a doctor, but uses the "I'm just completing my exams" excuse to make it so that he doesn't have to do any real work."

"How do you know so much about him?" Naruto asked.

"When I was younger, I heard some of my father's friends talk about him. Saying how disappointed his father was with him and how he was probably going to be an inheritance baby his entire life. He's a total waster Naruto, stay away from him." Sasuke spat, a little bit more aggressive than intended.

Naruto looked down at the ground, trying to hide how the information had changed his view of Kabuto. In all fairness, his view of Kabuto had been based on a minute-long interaction they'd had earlier but he still had a view to begin with. Naruto had identified with the fact that Kabuto refused to give up despite constantly failing the exam a little bit more than he'd like to admit, but it felt good that their was someone else in the world who was pushing onward despite the negative stigma that doing so entailed (Kabuto had a nickname and everything). If that was really just some cover-up for a rich kid not wanting to do anything with his life, then it made him kind of…_hate _Kabuto.

As soon as that thought popped into his head, the more charitable side of Naruto immediately whiplashed back with double the amount of power. He needed to remember that Sasuke came from a high-up clan himself. The dude had an entire block of land for fucks sake. It would come as no surprise that his father's rich adult friends were just doing what rich adults did: looking down upon someone who they perceived to have tripped up. He was sure that Kabuto had a good reason for failing the exams so many times, even if it was just that he sucked.

_**BEEEEEEEEEEP!**_

The unmistakable sound of an airhorn being set off blasted through the area, pounding into the genins eardrums.

"_Attention anyone who's not currently present_, it's time for the third stage to begin!"

The voice of Anko Mitarashi rang out over the forestland as said woman took her spot on the wood stage. The jonin all lined up in a row behind her, giving her an immediate aire of authority and power in this situation. The stunned silence had knocked most of the genin silent, meaning she had free reign to dictate the rules of the stage. The only real sound came from the harsh footsteps of the genin who had been previously left to go refill their water skins (including Dosu who waved a baggy, long-sleeved wave to Team 7 as Kin came running back with him tow)

"Alright eyes up you little dirtbags, my name is Anko Mitarashi. If you're from Konoha, you probably know me as the organizer of the exams. If you're from one of the other nations, then hi, I'm the organizer of the exams. Today, you'll be- "

Despite her energetic tone, she soon became silenced, seemingly cutting herself off for no reason. That was, until her silence revealed to the rest of the genin what had been causing the problem. A bubble of chatter radiated from a small group of two girls and one boy, apparently oblivious to Anko's control of the situation. Anko blankly stared at them for a few seconds, before realizing that they were far too deep into their conversation for her to interrupt it with usual measures.

"Hey, you." She said, getting only a slight side-eye in response from one of the girls in the group.

That slight side-eye was all she needed though, Anko latching onto the opening like a hungry dog with a bone.

"Yeah, you in the little brown dress. Come here."

The girl, dressed in the aforementioned item, was short. She had light brown hair as well as a headband with a symbol none of Team 7 could identify. Her expression was surprisingly self-assured, still syphoning the collective self-confidence of her team.

"What is it Ms. Mitarashi?" She asked.

Anko stayed silent.

_**Fwoosh! **_

Then out of nowhere, a kunai knife came flying at the genins face. It was slow enough so that the girl realized she was in imminent danger, but far too fast for a low-level ninja like her to have any hope of stopping it. Its sharpness looked deadly enough that it was practically splitting sunlight over itself as it ripped through the air, a collective gasp ringing over the crowd as they realized they were about to watch a girl get stabbed in the head. Her face scrunched up, flinching as the knife came _inches _away from imbedding itself in the bridge of her nose.

And then it suddenly stopped. Anko was now in front of her, grabbing the kunai just before it claimed a fresh kill. The girl blinked a couple of times, at first wondering whether she was actually alive, or that it was just taking a few seconds for the pain to set in. As soon as she realized it was the former, jitters began to visibly run over her back, the girl struggling to stand up completely.

"What's your name?' Anko asked, eyes steely fixated.

"R-R-Rei." She mumbled back.

"Well, Rei. You'd agree that what I did just then was pretty badass right?"

"Y-yes."

"Well, the thing is, I do that when people speak when I'm speaking. It's a bit inconvenient but it's what I do." Anko said.

This was an obvious lie, and Anko was just attempting to make an example out of Rei, but considering a crazy-eyed woman was currently holding a kunai up to her face coupled with the fact she'd thought she was going to die no more than five seconds ago, Anko could have told her name wasn't even Rei and she still would've believed her.

"Now the thing is, I'm not actually that cool. It's actually pretty hard for me to do stuff that's that cool. Who says that if you talk again, **I'll be able to catch the next one**?"

There were a few seconds of silence before Rei gently nodded, mumbling something incoherently as she walked back to her group at the pace of a sloth.

"That's right, you better shut the fuck up." Anko growled, climbing back onto the exam stage.

Her bright grin quickly returned, it's reappearance probably having something to do with the collective quiet that had suddenly washed over the genins.

"Alright, let's get back on track here. This is the third stage of the exam, The Forest of Death. Each team will be given a scroll and then randomly placed around the perimeter of the forest. There are two types of scrolls: heaven and earth. If you are to pass this stage, you must steal another team's scroll so you have both and take them to the tower located in the center of the forest. This test last five days and if you are not at the center tower by then, you fail, even if you've managed to retrieve both scrolls."

Sasuke glanced over at the rest of the crowd. Assuming that each team didn't get strategically greedy and aimed to steal only one scroll, that still meant the herd was being thinned by half.

"That being said, the scrolls are not the only thing you need to worry about. Unless you manage to make it to the center of the forest in record time, you will need to provide your own food, water and shelter for that five-day period. If you find yourself suffering from starvation, you will be given a flare seal that you can set off and receive immediate jonin assistance. However, setting this flare off will be considered a fail. Are we clear?"

No one said anything, as they didn't want to have a kunai thrown in their face.

"Okay, good. Let's get started then. Form a line of threes along the stage and a jonin will give you your flare seal before blindfolding you and escorting you to your starting location."

After speaking she quickly retrieved a slip of paper, which appeared to be a script judging by how she held it up.

"Also, please keep in mind that by not willingly failing at this point, any physical or psychological damage you suffer in The Forest of Death is the responsibility of you yourself, and not the Village of Konoha or any of the jonin currently supervising you. The mortality rate that comes with the chunin exams has been clearly outlined to your sensei and your legal guardians, and accepted by you due to your presence currently." Anko read in clear monotone.

Her eyes suddenly squinted, the woman holding the piece of paper up high to try and read a bit of text that had was most likely written in fine print.

"_but…but forage? What's this say? but…_Oh! But don't forget to enjoy yourself and the company of your teammates!" She enthusiastically said.

The crowd did not return her energy.

* * *

A sharp puff of smoke aross from the end of the Hokage's pipe, floating in the air for a few seconds before fading out into nothing. There were some days his back started acting up, or his cough got the best of him, and he wondered why he still clung to this job after all these years. The answer was always revitalized in his head when he saw the glory of the Konoha sunset bathing the village in an emboldened amber glow. Soon enough, the night would come alive, drowning the setting light in a serenade of street lanterns and cold winds. Truly, there was no better a sight then this…

"_Hyuck!_" He exhaled after gulping a bit too much smoke from his pipe.

Okay, maybe it was the responsibility of the job that kept him here instead of some frivolous view. A sharp knock came at his door just seconds after, the familiar cadence indicating that it was obviously Mao.

"Come in." He murmured; words being swiftly followed by the creaking of the door.

"Lord Hokage, advisor Shimura wishes to speak with you at his home. I can't give you directions as he's had it redacted from any and all public records, so- "

"Mao.' Hiruzen grunted, standing up from the table. "I know where it is. Arrange for an upper-level ANBU detail."

"Just for a walk, my lord?" Mao asked, raising an eyebrow.

A stern gaze from Hiruzen answered the question.

"Alright, okay- "Mao said, exiting the room to do as ordered.

Hiruzen sighed upon hearing the door shut, walking over to a nearby coat rack and retrieving a warm jacket. It was a cold night after all and he was but a frail old man.

Fifteen minutes later, and Hiruzen found himself trudging through a forest while ANBU trailed him through the trees. The ninjas circled around a tight formation, so quiet that the rustles of their feet were functionally identical to the blowing of the wind. Speaking of which, it really was a cold one tonight, worse because Danzo had decided to live in a secluded area that meant he'd have to walk twenty minutes to even see the first glimpse of modern civilization. It was somewhat understandable, Danzo was a secretive man so he kept to a secretive place, but it didn't mean that Hiruzen particularly liked plodding around with the wind in his face for what felt like an hour. Five minutes later, and he caught the first glimpse of his house.

It was an old but large forest cabin, who's windows were stained as to not reveal the contents inside. Vines of vegetation and strands of flora clung to the old wood it was composed of, making the whole house look aged. This was not unexpected. Danzo didn't fancy playing housekeeper. In fact, he probably didn't even fancy a housekeeper in the first place. All he probably cared about was that his home kept him safe and secure in most events, which, by a technicality, a massive cabin in the middle of nowhere probably did. Hiruzen grumbled to himself as he walked forwards, only for a sharp voice to stop him in his tracks.

"_Lord Hokage, wait_." A female voice called out, drawing his attention to an ANBU who was perched on the branch above him. "There's traps in your path. Snake traps, explosive tags and unidentified fujinjutsu seals. We'll have to try and diffuse it before you can continue."

Hiruzen looked up at her with a blank face, before _continuing to walk forward_. A rush of panic shot through her system, as she watched him absent-mindedly trigger a battering ram trap. Was he really that old that he couldn't hear properly anymore? Maybe it was the wind but still…

The two wood pillars swung forward, attached to string. They were sharpened at their edges as well as massive in their size. If they somehow didn't kill Hiruzen by impaling him, they'd crush him with both their mass and force of movement. The ANBU's life flashed before her eyes as she tried to figure out what she could do. The two sticks of wood were hurtling at him with the force of a truck, covering both left and right. They'd sandwich him into a pulp if she didn't do something quickly.

"_Lord Hokage, look out!" _She cried, beginning to move towards his direction.

Hiruzen still refused to look at the two hurtling beams of death that were swinging at him. Instead, he calmly (but quickly) ran through his hand signs, not even stopping his stride to do so. With a gentle stretch of his hands, he sent two ferociously sharpened slices of wind shooting outward to his sides. They cut through the string of the battering rams like they were made of butter, the simple jutsu completely halting any momentum they once had. What had just looked like two weapons that were sure to bag a new body, now gently fell to the ground behind Hiruzen with the old man not even acknowledging their presence. The ANBU looked at each other from the treetops, relief clear even through the obstruction of their masks.

"_**Danzo**_, disable your bullshit system before I wreck the rest of it!" He yelled.

Soon enough, the sensory ANBU who had been monitoring the defense system felt as the chakra that had powered it completely faded away. A few seconds later, the door of the hose swung open, Danzo stepping out in the same white robe he wore all the time. Even through the bandages on his face, there was a clear irritation in his features.

"You really could have done that _before _you decided to destroy my meticulous handiwork." Danzo said, cross.

"You know I don't like waiting." Hiruzen said, reaching the wide but short staircase that stood as the entrance of Danzo's home.

"Have you forgotten that patience is one of the most important aspects of being a leader?"

Hiruzen looked at him with an unsympathetic tepidness. Danzo was so used to his gaze being an exasperated crassness that seeing the facial features that defined the Third's younger days caught him slightly off-guard.

"The virtues of a patient man have no bearing on a god of shinobi. Now, mind telling me why you've called me out here?"

"It's not for no reason, I assure you Hiruzen." A quickly recovering Danzo said, before entering inside and leaving the door open.

With anyone else, Hiruzen would take this as a que to come inside, but with Danzo, he immediately recognized it as the man just retrieving something. This would prove to be correct as just seconds later, Danzo reemerged holding a large black body bag. Hiruzen immediately frowned as he was led back down onto the forest floor.

The bag was attentively placed down against the dirt, Danzo quickly unzipping it with a stern expression. The frown the Hokage had been wearing further intensified as he noticed the state of the body. It was a man, probably not much older than twenty-five although due to his coloration. His light skin had begun to shrivel into a pale white, creating a similar sensation to what looked like the dead skin on your foot. Several veins of this rain across his face, each becoming more and more rough and deep in color. What Hiruzen noticed in particular though, was a small bit of writing underneath his eye. In sharp black ink, it read:

_**Are you impressed sensei?**_

"He was found like this around the border four days ago now and he just got in a few hours back. I've had a medic-nin run an autopsy on his body, but he couldn't find much of anything." Danzo elucidated, crouching down as he unwrapped the corpse from its casing.

"Do we have a time or cause of death?" Hiruzen asked, not taking his eyes of the body.

"The bodies been genetically altered far too much for us to properly figure this out. A group of hunters says they found him in a spot he definitely hadn't been the day before. His cause of death appeared to be snake bite."

Hiruzen's brow furrowed.

"Orochimaru's work. I presume calling card protocol picked this up?"

"Yes. I presume you'd want to send ANBU squad out near the borders?" Danzo asked.

Hiruzen stayed silent for a bit, deep in thought. This was a very dangerous situation, and not something that could be handled by simply throwing a number of forces at it.

"If we assume the bodies' approaching five or six days old, he would've already bypassed most border security. What is the status on Itachi Uchiha and his companion?"

"There hasn't been a sighting of any black-cloaked man who matched Itachi's description since the Iwa incident. I don't think they're currently a threat to our internal defense."

Hiruzen put a finger on his chin, stroking it thoughtfully before turning to Danzo with a stern gaze.

"Send multiple patrols around the country. Orochimaru is not to enter Konoha under any circumstances. Am I clear?"

"As you wish." Danzo nodded, zipping up the body bag and standing back upright.

If their thesis was correct, they be able to gauge his location quickly. After all, how much ground could one man cover in six days? The answer to this question should really have been doubled, but they didn't know that. Sure, they knew that the body had been altered in some way, but to the extent of what had actually happened? There was no gauging that. See, when you were extremely proficient with ninjutsu and sealing, there was a lot of tricks you could pull, but while to you, they may have just been tricks, to others unaware, they could become _reality_.

The body Hiruzen and Danzo were currently looking at was three and a half weeks old.


	29. Duels Of Heaven and Earth

"Here's your blindfold." The jonin said, passing Kiba the thin cloth.

The boy smiled, neatly wrapping it around his eyes with no complaints. Afterall, just because he was blindfolded didn't mean he didn't have eyes on the ground in Akamaru.

"Here's one for your dog too." The jonin added, quickly wrapping a mini-sized version of the same blindfold over the eyes of Akamaru.

The dog yelped in protest, while Kiba snarled.

"Ah, _what_?"

The jonin did not give him any response. The pay-rate for the exams was piss poor, so he could be forgiven for not wanting to get into a debate with an Inuzuka about the ethics of blindfolding a dog. The thing already had a better sense of smell than a human, it's not like it'd die if it couldn't see for five seconds. Besides, the collective attention of them was swiftly brought onto the squabble to their side.

"Ms. Hyuga you are holding up the process, please just put the blindfold on." Another jonin said, clearly bored out of her wits.

Hinata waved her hands in front of her face, attempting to smack the blindfold out of the woman's hands if she got too close. This was somewhat ineffective when you realized she was (ironically) unwilling to even look at the blindfold, turning her head away from the cloth like it was some disgustingly ugly monster. Due to this, the efficiency of her strikes constantly fluctuated between a certain hit if the woman got too close to a child-like flail that was striking nothing but air.

"_I can't do it! _Can't I just put my hands over my eyes?!" Hinata cried, nearly literally judging by the tears that were comically welling up in her eyes.

She was so strangely scared by the blindfold, that it had actually managed to temporarily stunt her stutter.

"We can't guarantee you won't peak so- "

"I won't!I promise_, _double promise_, pinkie promise, _I won't peak_!_"

Kiba who was purely observing the situation by sound due to his blindfold, heard a small tsk come from his side.

"How troublesome." The already blindfolded Shino murmured.

"Hinata, come on, you can just look through it anyway." Kiba said, genuinely confused as to why she was treating the act of "wearing a blindfold" as if it were a lethal injection.

"**I just don't want to wear the blindfold okay**?!"

* * *

"Need bathroom." Dosu squeaked, for what felt like the third time in the last five seconds.

The two jonin who were escorting his team had to bite down on their lips to keep the exasperated sigh from leaking out. Maybe his oddness was to be expected, considering the state these ninjas appeared to be in. Dosu had bandages covering his whole goddamn head (making the blindfold a slight bit unnecessary) and the boy next to him had a rusty metal breathing respirator stuck onto his face along with headgear and a tan yellow top. Kin was the only one who looked anything resembling normal, and even she had visible scars that cascaded down the banks of her knuckles.

"You can go to the bathroom when the stage stars. It shouldn't be that long now." One of the jonin grumbled.

Dosu nodded, though this term was used somewhat loosely.

"Nodded" implied that he was showing that he understood, when really everyone in the group knew that he was just going to start asking about the same thing in thirty seconds.

Around three Dosu bathroom questions later, the chunin reached the marked spot in the forest. They quickly sorted the blindfolded ninja into a horizontal line, sandals sinking into the stew of leaves and mud that ran across the forest flooring. It didn't help that Dosu was literally bouncing on his legs like a child, constantly uprooting mud droplets anywhere.

"You will be allowed to discard your blindfolds and begin the stage in ten seconds." One of the jonin said, he and his partner moving outward as to avoid the collateral of Dosu's wobbling.

"We'll count you down. Ten…" Both men chanted unanimously.

Normally in this situation, one's headspace would be more focused on the first moves they would make. Even the slightest slip up could lead to a fail. Hell, they didn't even know what the forest truly looked like. It could be smaller than expected, meaning you might run into another team early. With that in mind, how would you react with the scroll you'd been given? How could you know that these guys weren't collecting as many scrolls as they could as contingences? There was a lot of things you had to consider.

And Dosu was thinking of absolutely none of them. There was only one thought going through his head right now.

_You fool's just signed your death warrant._

Even with the blindfold on, he could see. The crunching of the soil beneath their shoes, the material of their flak jackets squeaking as well, of course, the harmonized count down the two jonin were proceeding with. To Dosu, sound was no less of an integral sense than sight was. His ears heard everything, even the slightest step. He heard the prepared lurch of his respirator-wearing teammate and knew it was time to act.

"Zaku. Northwest, 335." He coordinated, tone a far cry from the dreamy dope he had previously sounded like.

Now, in a fair fight, Dosu doubted that even the three of them together would be able to take the jonin on. However, these two were so woefully off-guard that it made disposing of them far easier than he had expected. The boy with the yellow tan top pointed his arms out at one of the jonin in the exact coordinates Dosu had just said, before _unleashing _a large burst of what looked like wind. The jonin barely had time to react before he was ricocheted into the air like a ragdoll. He sailed backwards with a painful combination of distance and height, before his momentum was completely stopped when the back of his head smashed against a tree branch. His body limply spiraled to the ground, the process happening so fast that it was only when the sharp "bang" of his fall rang out that his partner realized something had happened.

"Hey, what the- "

The man reached for a kunai, attempting to jump backwards out of their range. However, Kin had already finished casting handsigns, releasing her genjutsu before he could even hope to successfully out-zone them. Suddenly, the lush nature scape that had surrounded him became pitch black, an infinitely-stretching abyss of nothingness. He could still see himself, but everything else was completely dark. Or so he thought. Flickers of images that he couldn't quite make out occasionally flashed into appearance for a second, before disappearing just as quickly as they came. Their dimensions were jagged, looking fuzzy and thin like a bundle of string that had somehow managed to unravel itself. The jonin braced, attempting to ready himself on-guard despite the distracting ringing that was plundering his eardrums at the moment.

_**Crunch.**_

The sound of soil squelching beneath his soles erupted from underneath him, far louder than it should've been. He looked down, being jolted with surprise as his eyes rested on the dirt beneath his feet. It wasn't completely visible, looking much like a small splotch of water color painting when put on the canvas of the pure darkness that surrounded him. It quickly was engulfed back into the darkness, but another step backwards yielded similar results.

_Sound genjutsu. _He thought to himself.

_**SREEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE-**_

An almost literally earsplitting wave of sound rang through the room. Erratic white cracks began to dance along the sides of the genjutsu abyss, frenzied and shaky due to the power of the noise. The jonin collapsed immediately, the nerves in his head being set ablaze by the flame of the sound. He writhed along the ground, dragging what he thought was his one of his hands up to his head to try and stop the involuntary shaking that was coursing through his body. It was far too loud and frantic for any human ear to take, jagged and twisted as it were the sonic equivalent to barbed wire. However, _this_ barbed wire was being deposited directly into his mind.

He gripped on tightly to the sides of his head, fearing that if he didn't, his head would simply split in two. Any strategies he tried to come up with existed for no more than a second before the _piercing _agony of the sound rendered them no more than a drop in the ocean that was its cacophonous chorus of anguish. Only the most basic instincts of his training were able to roam freely in his mind and even then, it was a struggle.

The genjutsu was much too late in its activation process for him to repel it, if he'd known earlier, he'd most likely been able to mitigate it's effects by a substantial amount. For now, he only had one choice. While the feeling in his hands had long since gone away thanks to the constant barrage of his lucidity, he hoped he was still gripping onto his kunai. Slowly, he attempted to move his numb arm in hopes of slicing open the chakra pathways in his ears. It was nearly impossible. He didn't even know if he was moving his arm as much as he was just focusing every non-assaulted brain cell he had to try and hope he did. This was a sight that, in the quiet, resting reality of the forest, the sound ninja found quite amusing.

"He thinks he's moving his arm. Probably trying to sever his ear or something like that." Dozu said, in fluent Otsutsukish.

The reality of the situation was that the man's grasp on reality was so bad that all he was truly managing to do was edge his kunai-less hand further and further away from his face. Dosu's one eye watched with merciless glee, his lurching posture and intelligent tone of voice far away from that of the bizarrely eccentric dope he had seemed. The sound that was loud enough to break down the fortified mental defenses of a jonin was, in fact, no more than a faint hum from the metal gauntlet that lay under Dosu's wrist. Kin grunted, standing still with her hands pushed out in a seal.

"Dosu, this genjutsu uses a lot of chakra. I can't keep amplifying you for much longer."

"Wait. A few more seconds and he'll start pissing himself." Dosu said, sadistic gaze completely focused on the writhing man.

"_You know he doesn't like it when you play with your food_." Kin grunted once more.

This caught Dosu's attention. He looked up at her with a look that could only be described as crazed, before quickly striding towards the jonins body. With a loud _thwack, _he smashed his metallic gauntlet against the jonins skull with enough force to put a permeant dent in him. He looked back up at the two with the eye that was previously full of emotion now completely blank to even someone adept at emotional reading.

"My apologies Kin. I did not mean to waste time." He said, casually wiping the blood off his melody arm. "Now, Zaku, can you finish up please?"

The silent boy nodded, swiftly moving over to the chunin who'd been knocked out by the tree and taking aim. He had been left face down against the floor, blood knotting itself into his hair. Zaku didn't care which way it went, between the ground and his head, something had to give if he shot his sound burst downwards.

_**FWOOOOOOSH!**_

Kin flinched.

Dosu showed no interest, looking away from the sight like it was the most menial thing in the world. His interest was significantly more far away now, though still contained to the forest. He recalled the earlier events, specifically him hugging Naruto Uzumaki. Dosu was not a fool or a pig, he would not have touched a filthy beast-blood like that unless he absolutely had to. Luckily, it seemed that his courageous efforts had been rewarded as neither Naruto or the fools on his team had found the true purpose of the embrace. While clutching the boy, he had placed a small sealing tag on his back that could be released with a simple hand sign. Doing so would set forth a paper trail of chakra infused soundwaves, transmitted at a frequency undetectable by the human ear. However, Dosu's gauntlet was not just a substitute for it, but something greater.

Mere seconds after he set forth the sign, the holes in the Dosu's metallic arm wear began to whir, catching the signal. The closer they got to Team 7, the louder this signal would get.

The Sound boy traced a loving finger over the sleek silver plating, purring to himself.

"_Oh, my melody arm, how I adore you_\- "

His eye quickly snapped awake, leader instinct taking mental priority over his fixations.

"Kin, Zaku. I've got their location. Hide the bodies of the pigs, fasten our heaven scroll and move quickly. If we take too long, sensei will be disappointed."

The two nodded, disposing of the jonins' bodies before rushing into the tree tops for fast movement. Dosu soon joined them, heading up the back of their formation though this was quickly swapped with Zaku. The sounds of his melody arm stayed fixated into his ears, leading the group through the treetops of the forest.

It was a marvelous time of year for a fox hunt, even if he was only a bonus in the grand scheme of things…

* * *

"Uh, it stinks here." Shikamaru grumbled to himself, the dry smell of pine and soil causing him to wrinkle his nose.

A bodily reaction of equal proportions occurred in Choji, although this was in the form of his stomach grumbling. The Akimichi boy rubbed his stomach, tongue running over his lips in an attempt to excavate the dust of the potato chips he'd eaten just before arriving at the forest.

"Man, I'm hungry. Are they gonna give us somethin' to eat or what?"

"They said we have to find our own food dummy, weren't you listening?" Ino snapped back, crouching down as she attempted to scout out the densely-packed woods in front of her.

"Ino, lock that scroll in tighter. It'll fall off if you keep it clipped loose like that." Shikamaru added, motioning to the earth scroll that she'd kept pinned onto the hem of her skirt.

Ino looked back at him and stuck her tongue out, with Shikamaru simply rolling his eyes in response. Team 10 had been started on higher ground than they'd expected. It wasn't a significant peak or anything like that, but when considering the plentiful fauna that surrounded them, it was a good idea to try and get back to flat footing. They could barely even see a meter away from themselves thanks to the bushes and the trees.

"You reckon they have barbeque in this place?" Choji asked, a slight glimmer coming to his eyes at the thought.

"No, why would they?" Shikamaru said back.

"She just said you have to find your own food, right?"

"She meant you have to kill it yourself."

The color drained from Choji's face. It was a full five seconds before he finally managed to speak, though his voice was soft when considering the usual boisterous voice he spoke in.

"…I ain't eating anything then." He said.

"We'll unless, you want to starve, you're gonna have to go vegan." Shikamaru mused.

"_**I ain't eating anything then.**_" Choji barked back, resolve only hardened by what he'd just heard.

Not being able to stand _two _stubborn good for nothings on her team as opposed to just one, Ino snapped back to Choji with a glare.

"You just said you wanted barbeque, literally what's the difference between that and some meat from the forest?"

Choji paused.

"…It's different."

"_How_?"

"Ino, clip the scroll on tighter." Shikamaru interrupted.

"Shut up Shika, I've got more important things to do." She spat, returning back to attempting to scope out the area below.

Shikamaru shrugged his shoulders, stating awkwardly still for a minute before reaching into his pocket. What he brought out was a bundle of single cigarettes that he'd tied together with thread and a tiny match box. He untangled the string, gesturing one of the smokes over to Choji.

"You want one?" He asked.

Choji shook his head, recalling a lecture he'd got from his father about how smoking was pure evil and that if you had to smoke a cigarette to save your life, you should just die. He hadn't really taken the rant seriously, mostly because it had been brought on by him buying a pack of _candy _cigarettes, but he did realize that he would probably be grounded for a decade if his dad found out he'd even touched a smoke.

"Put those away Shikamaru." Ino said.

The way she was speaking was sudden and serious, a clear contrast to her usual whingy tone. It barley even sounded like her anymore, which caught Shikamaru cleanly off-guard.

"Come on Ino, it's just a smoke. Asuma smokes them all the time and he's fine."

"I asked you to put them away." Ino said again, not even turning to face him.

While he'd previously been flustered by her serious tone, Shikamaru's subconscious distain for being bossed around immediately kicked into gear.

"God, girls like you really are a drag. This is a thing _adults _do, you just don't get it." He explained.

This only served to make Ino mad. She rose to her feet with a controlling glare in her eye that Shikamaru hadn't seen since they were way younger. She reached out and _ripped _the bundle of cigarettes out of Shikamaru's hands. Following this, she threw them on the ground and stomped down against them _hard_, flecks of cigarette leaf filling out onto the dirt. Shikamaru looked down at the remains with surprise, before his angered gaze become hyper fixated upon her.

"_What the actual fuck?! _This is the most minor thing ever, why has it suddenly become problem number one for you?"

"Because I'm tired of people like you thinking you can do whatever you want because you're smart! Genin and people under sixteen years of age _aren't _allowed to smoke, that's the law!"

"Guy's…" Choji tried to calm the two down, but he may as well not have said anything at all with how enraptured the two were in their arguments.

"Yeah and the law is bullshit. You know the minimum age to fight in the war was thirteen, but apparently we can't smoke?"

"I don't make the fucking rules Shikamaru, they do!"

He looked over The Yamanaka girl, barley even recognizing what he was seeing. She was her usual drama-queen self no more than thirty seconds ago, how had she so suddenly transformed into an authoritarian anti-drug PSA.

"Okay hall-monitor, am I gonna have to ask permission to go get a drink of water next?" He snarled.

This, for some reason, looked like it actually offended Ino, to the point he felt a little bit bad for saying anything. But again, it didn't make sense! He'd called her a "fucking bitch" on numerous occasions and the most he'd ever got was some equally juvenile comeback. What had gotten her so shaken up now?

"Look, you just don't- "Ino tried to say something but quickly cut herself off.

A rustle in the bushes brought all three of the team's attention sideways, but none of them were fast enough to catch what was happening. A figure body-flickered past Ino, snatching the earth scroll from her belt. While the execution of the steal may have been slightly sloppy, it didn't matter because the scroll's clip had been so loose that even the lightest force was capable of sending it directly into the hands of _Kabuto Yakushi_.

He landed a good distance away from them, enough that they couldn't easily engage him in combat thanks to the trees in the way. The boy looked just as shocked as the trio that he had managed to snatch an exam scroll, but he recovered much quicker.

"Oh…_Oh shit! _I got it!" He cheered to himself, quickly getting back onto his feet and dashing off into the woods.

The sight of their exam's meal ticket running into an abyss of branches and leaves was enough to jolt all three Team 10 members to attention.

"That four-eyed fuck just stole our scroll!" Ino shrieked, quickly returning to her old self.

"C'mon, let's go after him" Choji yelled, beginning to sprint forward as fast as a person of his girth possibly could.

Ino quickly followed, with Shikamaru lazily trailing along behind her. If she'd just tightened the fucking clip…

* * *

Rock Lee found it hard to break into a sprint. He was not used to his eternal flames of youth being as constrained as they were now. He was not allowed to make any noise, or break out into a run like he wanted to. He had to stay quiet and still, as Neji had instructed.

The trio of ninja walked along the forest floor, Neji scouting from the back using his byakugan. While it was hard to accurately judge thanks to the expanse of trees that covered the sky, it was clear that the sun had fully retired for the evening and let the stars come out to play. Even with the dojutsu activated, he found it hard to see. Tenten headed up the front of their formation, holding a lit lantern that she'd sealed away in preparation for a five-day task. Even when she was dead silent though, the clinking of all the different tools and scrolls she'd packed with her was a dead giveaway that something was in the area. Neji would have asked her to discard some of them, but he knew that would only lead to a lecture about how she was poor and couldn't just abandon things willy-nilly. She'd probably get so worked up about it that it would cause more noise than leaving her tools behind would, so he chose to stay silent for the moment. That was, until he started to see the first glimpse of a stream up ahead.

"I see a stream fifty meters straight from here. We should try and set up shelter near it." Neji explained.

Tenten flashed a thumbs up back while Lee turned and nodded at him. After that, a dead silence began to rest through the lush vegetation of the forestry. The lanterns light weaved through the sprawling branches of the high-up trees, illuminating their old, sturdy wood for seconds at a time. Their sandals shuffled over the ground, kicking up through the piles of fallen leaves that had been littered over it. The chirping of the crickets began to hum through the air, though their subtle sound only made the area seem more isolated and alone. This was a deceptive feeling. However, the byakugan was a dojutsu capable of seeing nearly 360 degrees worth of its surroundings. Deception was not a feeling familiar to Neji Hyuga, and it stayed that way.

"Move." He ordered, rolling sideways.

_**SLASH!**_

Lee and Tenten barely had time to react when a flash of sparkling yellow lightning cut through the darkness of the sky. The bolt slammed down against where Neji had been standing, sending jolts of static coursing along the ground. Lee and Tenten both flipped backward to meet their teammate, as well as scout out a better view of their attackers. A girl with a tan skin knelt where Neji had just been standing, golden volts of electricity flickering from her skin. She looked up at the group, smiling a (quite literally) bright grin at them. Judging from the darkness of her skin, Neji assumed she may have been from one of the Iwa colonies that wasn't actually recognized by Iwa, hence why they took the chunin exams. The symbol on her headband was foreign to him, so he chose to believe this was the case.

Two ninjas appeared next to her (one with similar colored skin and one with lighter). Both were boys, the darker one with orange hair while the lighter one had black. The pair looked kind of dopey, and nowhere near as threatening as the girl (probably on account of the fact that they didn't have lightning radiating off of them). Neji scanned their pockets using his byakugan, trying to find their scroll. Unfortunately, they appeared to have a heaven whereas Team Guy had an earth, so it seemed that de-escalation was not in the cards for this encounter.

"You know which one has the scroll?" The black-haired boy whispered to the girl, who shook her head.

Neji immediately reached forth a snatched the earth scroll from Tenten's pocket and ran to the side, the electric girl quickly chasing after him in pursuit.

"Hey!" Tenten screamed, before realizing she should really be breathing a sigh of relief that Neji had essentially volunteered to fight the scariest one on his own.

With a battle cry, the black-haired boy ran charged towards Tenten with a kunai in hand. Before he could even really break out into a sprint though, Lee leaped forwards with a flying kick. The amount of momentum he managed to channel without even needing a run-up took the other boy by surprise, immediately halting his sprint in hopes of walking backwards and trying to beat Lee's distance. This became more and more of an impossibility as he flew through the sky, with the kick catching his foe flush on the chin and sending them both into the more tree-filled area that Team Guy had been trailing the side of.

This left only Tenten and the orange-haired boy on the path. Tenten stowed her lantern on the ground before filling her hand with a kunai and attempting to jump backward. The other boy's hands moved into seals, before he pointed them out into a connected double L shape.

"Wind release: reflecting gust barrier!"

The stretch of trees that Tenten had been attempting to jump back to suddenly became overtaken by a wall of fixed, unmoving wind. She collided against the sudden obstacle, ricocheting off onto the ground like a game of wallball. The boy cautiously backed into a guard stance, cautious of whether Tenten was going to respond quickly. Ironically, instantly trying to attack her may have also been a more cautious move than waiting her out, because when he gave her time to breath, he also gave her time to think and she thought just about as quickly as she talked.

She blinked.

Leaves. Lantern. Wind Wall.

_There's approximately one meter between myself and the target. His posture is loose and jittery, clearly nervous. He's holding his kunai too far out, leaving the right side of his body completely open. Most likely not any more proficient in weapons usage than the average genin, if not less so._

Leaves. Lantern. Wind Wall.

_He could use wind release, so he's probably attempting to zone me. Kunai combat is a no go for now. His hands are shaking, probably because he knows he's gonna cast hand signs when I move. If I roll back, he'll fire prematurely. _

**Leaves. Lantern. Wind Wall. **

_Okay, I've got it. _

She blinked again_. _

Tenten leapt back up to her feat, grasping the lantern and cutting through its paper as to further expose its flame. She lurched forwards, baiting the boy into dispensing a wind release jutsu for a target that never even intended to step into its path in the first place. This blast of wind sent the plentiful leaves on the ground flying up into the air, enough so that it actually obscured the boy's view of Tenten. With a quick flick of her wrist, she chucked the lantern towards the leaf cluster, setting them ablaze. The beautiful sight of the leaves flying through the air quickly turned deadly, as their fanciful floating quickly became nulled by the sparks of flame. The boy ran sideways, ducking out of the way of the blazing flora, casting hand signs in an attempt to counteract Tentens next move.

The problem was, he didn't actually know where she was going as he was more so focused on escaping the fire leaves. Because of this, his mind subconsciously instructed itself to unleashes the wind shot _as soon as he saw her_. Turning his gaze to the side, he found her jumping upwards through the air. Not at him, just jumping up like you would see a child with a skipping rope doing. His mind at this point was so trigger happy, that it didn't even stop to think about how this was bad idea. Instead, he instantly shot the wind blast jutsu at her.

The rebound was immediate, as wind hit wind and it was reflected back at him. Tenten angled herself, hitting the wind wall with acute positioning and bouncing back towards him. The boy flew backwards, slamming into a nearby tree with enough force to force the breath out of him. Tenten landed a little bit away, though this wasn't unaccounted for. She rolled along the ground, slickly re-brandishing her kunai as she did so. The orange-haired boy was barely able to dodge when she leapt forwards, only just managing to get his cheek out of the way of her slash. The blade grazed along the wood of the tree, skinning the bark with its slice while the boy rolled to the side in hopes of making enough distance.

He tried to fumble through his hand signs, but not only did he mess them up, Tenten had predicted his move and chased after him like a heat seeking missile. She kicked at his hands, dismissing any hopes of him being able to get a jutsu off before beginning to slash away at him. The boy managed to take out his kunai in time to block most of her shots, but his posture was so defensive he had no hope of doing much else than guard and avoid. She was quick, effortlessly manipulating the kunai around her hand after every slice. There was far more power behind her swings than his counters as well, each of Tenten's hits pushing him back. He couldn't even hope to try and step out of his defensive stance, as she was far too fast and would surely hit him when even the smallest amount of fragility arose in his posture.

Reaching into her pocket, she retrieved a scroll. Skillfully using the tip of her unarmed hand to unlock it, the paper swirled to her side. The radiating wind of the gust barrier sent the paper flowing, rolling over itself like the ripple of a wave until, suddenly, it released a giant mallet into Tenten's hand. It was big, probably taller than Tenten herself and made out of complexly crafted wood. She threw her kunai to the side, needing both hands to properly wield the mallet. However, the throw was intentional, sending the kunai ricocheting from the gust barrier back towards the boy. He managed to deflect it with his own kunai, sparks sputtering from the metallic collision, only for the head of the mallet to come smashing into his legs.

Tenten practically scooped him off the ground with the force of her swing, sending him high up in the air before smashing him back down with another blow from the hammer. At the very least, the boy presumed the actual head of the mallet was hollow judging from the fact it hadn't torn a hole in his stomach, but this was a very small victory in the grand scheme of things. It got even smaller as he watched Tenten leap in the air with the mallet behind her, seemingly intent to try and flatten him. He only _just _managed to summersault backwards of the way, but little did he know that this was her attention already.

She pushed the stick of the mallet down into the head of it. With a small clicking sound, the head _detached_ from the base, allowing her to kick the head along the ground at the boy. It scooted through the leaves, stopping near the feet of the now standing ninja. Before he could even hope to kick it away, Tenten reached into her pocket and retrieved a tiny piece of sealing paper that had been twisted into the shape of a dart. With that, she raised the stick of the mallet upwards, revealing the hollow ends at each of the tips. The paper seal was placed in the base of the stick like a blow dart, before Tenten exhaled through the pipe and shot it outwards with surprising force. It sailed through the air, before unraveling in on itself as it hit the genin boy directly above the nose.

A sudden rush of stillness washed over the boy. Despite the relatively minor impact of the paper dart, his whole body had become numb. He couldn't move his arms, legs and lest of all his facial features, where it felt like the numbness had spread from. Then he realized. She must've hit him with a paralysis seal! This meant he was done for. He didn't have particularly high chakra reserves in the first place and had already ran them down significantly with his wind jutsus (especially the barrier). This, coupled with the fact that Tenten was quite competent with seals for her age, ensured that he most likely was not breaking out of it in time to win.

But Tenten did not attack him. Instead, she simply waved to him with a guilty expression on her face.

"Sorry." She called out.

It was about now that he noticed the sizzling noise from his side.

_**BOOM!**_

The head of the mallet, which he'd forgotten about, suddenly exploded, sending smoke and frayed chunks of wood everywhere. The boy was sent flying high into the sky, flailing and thrashing before he made his eventual, painful descent. He landed hard upon the ground, the piles of leaves not doing much to shield the impact of the back of his head.

With her foe knocked out, it would've been expected for Tenten to celebrate somewhat but instead, she just looked on in sadness. It had taken her a month to get that mallet stick working right with the explosive tags. Now she had to build it all over again…

* * *

Lee and the black-haired boy crashed into the woods, both lucky not to have been badly scratched by the branches. The latter quickly kipped back up after hitting the ground, eyes gazing over the place in search of Lee, but finding nothing. The boy moved quickly, but not quickly enough to dodge _this_. He weaved his hands together, collapsing them in a seal.

"Fire Style-_Ah!_"

Any confidence in his tone disappeared as he saw it. A figure flickered towards him, faster than his eye could even hope to comprehend. All he could see was the black and white outline of the things body, vaguely humanoid in shape. Its arm hurtled towards him at an absolutely blistering speed, the sounds of the forest scape being completely overtaken by howling winds of the upcoming punch. This was no mere punch though, this was one so powerful and so fast, that the boy had no chance of even seeing its full glory before it caved his face in. It was a punch capable of knocking a man's jaw clean off, and then its sheer force evaporating the blood in the wake. This was the punch of _god_.

"_Stop_!"

Or not. The hand stopped a few inches from his face, stretched out into a halting palm. With its motion finally slowed, Lee's true dopey self was pushed front and center and the fear that came with the punch vanished.

"What is your name?" Lee asked, formal in his words despite the fact his palm was a fingers worth of length away from covering the other boys face.

"Shinso." The black-haired boy said.

"Very good."

Lee pulled his hand back before transitioning into his usual "left arm behind the back, angled right hand" stance.

"My name is Rock Lee and I must inform you that, in the fairness of our duel, I am incapable of using genjutsu or ninjutsu. I focus solely on taijutsu, so you will not need to worry about me using other techniques."

To think he'd been afraid of this dude just five seconds ago. Shinso nodded along, not quite knowing why Lee apparently wanted to have a dialogue instead of just fighting him. The eccentric boy's hand shot back out with a sideways-facing open palm, though his hardened expression didn't change.

"Okay, please shake my hand!"

Shinso did so, hand running over the tape of Lee's own. For a second, due to Lee's massively tight grip, he thought this had been a strategy but these fears quickly faltered after Lee retracted. It wasn't a trick.

"Now turn around!"

That definitely was though. Shinso lowered his gaze, fringe sharpening in time with his glare.

"I'm not doing that." He said.

"_Please! _In the interest of fairness, we will both take five paces outward before commencing our battle!" Lee cried.

Shinso looked over him, thoroughly weirded out by his behavior. It wasn't like he was going to trick him, that much was obvious at this point, but still, Shinso didn't particularly want to go back to back with him at this point. Well, he could do _that…_

Shinso walked forward, turning around in a show of good faith. Lee beamed, skipping over to the boy before swiveling around himself. The pairs backs touched together for a moment, before Lee loudly called out.

"Okay! We will now begin the paces. _1…_"

Shinso and Lee took one step forward.

"_2…_"

Lee took another step forward. Shinso grabbed his kunai.

"_3…_"

Shinso darted at Lee's turned back, fully intending to jam the knife into it. However, before he could even hope to get in range undetected, Lee twisted around with enough speed to make Shinso question whether he'd even ever actually had his back turned. His cartoonishly simple eyes were wide with anger, a deep frown gracing his features.

"_Dishonorable_!" He screamed, thrusting out an attack to try and block the kunai.

It was as fast and speedy as his moves had been before, but Shinso couldn't help but smile. A kick? Really? He was essentially letting Shinso ground him for free. Hell, he wasn't even wearing shoes, he was wearing _**sandals**_! What the fuck was he thinking?!

_**CRACK!**_

Oh, that's what he was thinking.

With one swift thrust of his foot, Lee's kick _shattered the kunai completely_.

Chunks of metal fell through the air, scattering across the ground. Shinso stepped back, still grasping the (mostly) intact handle. Another kick from Lee connected hard with his hand, forcing him to drop it. In a matter of seconds, the tide of this "fight" (if you could even call it that) had shifted from a minor Shinso advantage, to a massive Lee one. Shinso continued walking backwards, ironically taking the paces Lee had wanted him to in the first place. He brough his hands in to try and cast a jutsu, only for Lee to slam his own fist into the boy's moving hand. As long as Lee was all in his face like this, Shinso had _no _chance of casting a jutsu.

He needed to try and make distance, a feat easier said than done when considering that Lee's striking was so adept that the smallest mistake would mean defeat. Hell, even a small victory would mean defeat, Lee was just too fast and, in contrast to his appearance, too tactically sound for Shinso to do anything more than walk back and pray Lee didn't knock him out. This strategy was only good for so long though thanks to the scenery. Shinso soon found himself backed against a tree, leaving nowhere to escape from Lee's constant assault of taijutsu. The leaf boy backed up for a split second, before _rocketing _forwards through the air with a double foot stomp.

He intended to flatten Shinso out against the base of the tree, but the commitment the attack required meant that this was not achieved. Using the small window of time Lee had taken to prep for the attack, Shinso rolled away. Lee's kick landed against the tree, cracking strips of bark off it like what happened when you pressed your fingers into a hard candy shell. Shinso, who had now backed away from the tree, began to weave hand signs in an attempt to get a fireball jutsu off. Lee cared little, leaping back of the tree before using his jumping momentum to grasp along the trunk of it and _spin around_ its length. He rocketed forward with momentum, boot sharply colliding with Shinso's chest.

Shinso fell to the ground. He looked forwards, seeing Lee approaching once more and attempted to sweep kick his opponent off the ground. While this attack did connect, it's intended effects were negligible as Lee caught himself in a hand stand. He moved forward with little lost momentum, nearly as quick as he had been running normally. Now Shinso, who had tried to push himself back up to a standing position, was bombarded with kicks from Lee's upright feet, each one dropping him back down to the ground. Eventually, after landing shot after shot in his handstand position, Lee pushed his shoulders in and vaulted up into the air. He began spinning around like he'd just jumped off a diving board, flipping over and over and over again before finally, he let lose a cry of battle…

"_Youth release- " _

Even with his bruised-up face, Shinso raised an eyebrow.

"_Leaf waterfall!" _

That eyebrow was very nearly knocked off as Lee converted his copious amount of momentum into one head-splitting kick. His boot slammed into the back of Shinso's head, knocking the boy out colder than a snowstorm.

Upon landing, he brushed his slightly loose hair back into its traditional bowl-cut shape, seemingly more concerned with that then the person he'd just beaten up (in all fairness, this wouldn't have been the case if Shinso had just taken the god damn paces).There was not even a sweat drop on his face, quite literally having finished the other boy "without breaking a sweat". A sudden clinking sound drew his attention back to Shinso's body.

"Hm?" Lee exclaimed, before his eyes found the heaven scroll that had just rolled out of his foes pocket.

A bright smile broke out onto his face.

* * *

Neji ran forward, erratically darting from side to side across the forest path as the electric girl bounced through the trees. He could read every move she made with the byakugan, his movement coming whenever she started to weave hand signs favoring one side. While she had at first seemed to be enjoying the challenge, she now began to become frustrated at his seemingly psychic level of intuition.

"Hey, just give me that scroll and you won't have to run."

Neji ignored her words. While her proficiency in lightning release was more than impressive, her awful chakra control ensured that she was no threat. Every time she started casting a jutsu, she would waste a massive amount of chakra, even when she didn't end up using it. He didn't know how much she had in her reserves, but simply letting her gas herself out seemed to be a viable strategy for this fight. Neji wasn't just satisfied with having one though. He ran towards the stream he'd seen, knowing that she would have to be careful around water. They were almost there now, being only a few meters away from the pool by his estimation. Expectedly, the she was getting restless.

She leaped from a tree branch, weaving hand signs before sticking her three middle fingers out.

"_Lightning release: thunder shot stingers!_" She cried.

Bolts of golden electricity coursed through her fingers, before they shot out into three golden bullets of pure lightning. The bullets spiraled through the air at Neji, vapor trails of golden light coursing off their length. The boy sprinted forward, attempting outrun them but soon realized this was an impossibility.

With a sudden shift of his foot and grit of his teeth, Neji turned his body to face the stingers. However, he didn't just stop. Neji began to spin around on the spot, holding his arms out besides himself. Spirals of pure blue chakra began to swirl around with him, building up into a dome shaped shield the more he spun. When the bullets finally reached him, they too were sucked into the twisting vortex, adding glowing strands of yellow to the swirling blue dome. Upon completing the rotation, Neji quickly dispersed the chakra around him. His teeth became unclenched, a small sight of relief blowing through them.

That had always been his weakest point.

"Neat trick." The girl said, approaching him on land now.

She was more cautious than she had been before, realizing the reason Neji had run away was not because of fear. He had now parked just in front of the shore line for the stream. Two steps backward at his position would send him splashing into the pool.

"_Now here's one of mine_."

Okay, maybe she wasn't more cautious than before. Gold streaks of lightning began to course from the back of her body, coating practically all of her back-half in a thick aura of electricity. Immediately, Neji realized that this was a jutsu on a level far above her previous efforts. It was so bright that, even with the all-seeing power of the byakugan, Neji instinctively felt like squinting. However, judging by the sloppy flow that was pouring through her chakra points right now, she lacked even the basic understating of how to use this beyond a surface level.

Chakra points functioned, essentially, as the "veins" of chakra. Starting from your stomach, the chakra points twirled around in a pathway that allowed the chakra to stabilize as it was generated before moving out into the points in the arms, head, neck, etc. that allowed for it to be released. Chakra points were invisible to the naked eye, and so small that they were almost impossible to take advantage of without the aid of the byakugan. Neji, while _**incredibly**_ proficient and precise for his age, still sometimes struggled to fully visualize the chakra network. His byakugan was not yet fully developed after all.

However, this didn't matter. As his enemy's lighting chakra ran through her pathways, he could see it all. The amount she was using was the equivalent of shining a torchlight onto them. Neji lurched into his traditional Hyuga stance, readying his palms.

"_Lighting release: thunder carriage!" _She screamed, boosting forward with the aid of a massive surge of chakra.

She was fast, there was no doubt about that but Neji wasn't worried. He stayed completely still, despite the crackling lighting and triumphant battle cry of the other girl. None of that mattered, in fact, he could barley see it all. Electricity surged around the air, frying the grass down below and illuminating the night better than a lantern ever could. She ran closer and closer. Neji did not move an inch. Even when she was only _inch_'s away from him, he gave her no mind. This only pissed the other ninja off further, her arm cocking back in a static-ridden display of power. The electrical current that was pressing up against her arm had nearly enough force to break it, but she didn't care. All that force was going to be pressed against Neji's unflinching face soon enough.

She veered, back, sending bolts of pure power fluttering off into the night sky. Everything in her entire being was behind this punch. This one,_ powerful, __**electricity-coated punch. **_

_**Fwoosh. **_

And then there was nothing. She was now falling to her knees, Neji using naught but a single palm strike to dismiss her whole attack. He'd hit the chakra joint on her shoulder, completely dispersing the electrical chakra she'd been using for propulsion as well as the burst of it on her arm. She glided down, eyes reflecting the subtle rivets of the stream's ripples. It was beautiful, for about a second, before she realized what his true plan was. Electrical chakra required more energy to charge up and generate then almost any other nature type, which meant it also lingered in the chakra network for far longer. Even if it were to be forcibly switched off by the byakugan, it could possibly be reactivated…

_**Fwoosh**_**.**

Moving himself backward, Neji jabbed her shoulder once more, reigniting the electrical charge of her body just as she fell into the stream…

_**BZZZZZZZZZT!**_

A thundering current of electricity ran through the water, stinging the girl all over her body. Flashes of yellow bled into the deep blue of the rippling water, creating a saturated effect that Neji thought was quite pretty. It didn't really last long enough to admire though, the effects of the lightning release quickly disappearing as the girl bobbed back up to the surface. She was unconscious, but not dead luckily. There wasn't nearly enough electricity left in her body after the first palm strike to do that. Neji quickly dragged her body back onto land and laid her down against the floor. He had little care for her, but he wasn't cruel enough to just leave a person drowning in the water.

He looked upward to the forest lane they'd just battled through, with hope that Tenten and Lee had proven competent enough to handle the rest of her team. This had proven very tiresome and he didn't want to have to repeat his efforts.

* * *

_..._

…

…

_Fwoosh!_

"Yes, good job Akamaru!" Kiba shouted.

The dog jumped forward, catching a scaley grey fish in its mouth. The boy and his dog had positioned themselves on the edge of a nearby lake while Shino and Hinata sat cross-legged in the small shelter they had created. It was under a small cave they'd found near the river, the trio using their time to equip it with a fire and three sleeping bags (piles of leaves). It wasn't particularly big (if Hinata laid sideways across the length of its inside, she'd most likely touch the other side with her toes. She could not even try to do the same along the width without being scrunched up) but it was at least cozy.

"Shino, that's yours" Kiba alerted, throwing the boy the fish so he could put it on the fire.

Shino did no such thing and simply ate it raw, to the slight disgust of his teammates. He quickly noticed the dirty looks he was getting and responded in kind.

"It's more nutritious this way." He said quietly.

"Okay dude." Kiba replied, coming over to sit with the rest of his team near the fire.

He supposed he could give the boy the benefit of the doubt though, even if it was just common courtesy. Thanks to his bugs, Shino had immediately found them the location of the tower, meaning they already had a chance to save a huge amount of time they would spend simply looking for it. They only really needed to get an earth scroll to match their heaven scroll at this point.

"Hey, you reckon we can read it?" He said, motioning to said scroll.

"T-they told us n-not to." Hinata replied, munching on her own previously caught fish.

"Oh really? Bummer, it's probably got some real big secrets in there."

His tone was slightly disappointed, but quickly bounced back.

"Anyway, how are you guy's feeling about this stage?"

"It's fun." Shino said, using a word that neither of the other two would be willing to ascribe to the _Forest of Death_.

"I think i-it's okay, even if we h-haven't really done much." Hinata stated.

"What do you mean by that?" Kiba asked back.

"W-well. Aren't we meant to fight people and stuff?" She said back, receiving a loud laugh from the Inuzuka boy.

"Come on Hinata! No one gets into fights on the first day!"


	30. Curling Sound Breeds Wilted Leaves

Naruto's stomach hungrily grumbled, as he softly chucked the earth scroll up and down in his hand. The embers of the nearby fire crackled away, spritzing into the cold air before fizzling away as quickly as they came. This added a much-needed another third layer of sound to a biome whose soundscapes really only consisted of crickets chirping and Sasuke nibbling at his squirrel meat skewer.

"Naruto, stop. That scroll is too important for you to play around with." Sakura scolded; eyeing how close Naruto was to the fire with slight worry.

"Alright, alright." Naruto agreed, taking the scroll and stuffing it in his pocket.

It was early in the morning of what was technically the first day of the stage. The darkness of the night had been begun to alleviate, while the faintest drops of daylight dripped into the sky. Sasuke estimated it was around two thirty in the morning but Team 7 had only _just _managed to set up shelter. They sat around a generally small but tall forest clearing which their fire had been situated in the middle of. While Sakura had attempted to give them some degree of fortification with booby-traps, it was still too lengthy and left too much covered space in which someone could scout them from for Sasuke's liking. They had not done particularly well on food either, catching only one squirrel that, when divided three ways, amounted to as much food as a small bag of potato chips. Suffice to say, their spirits were not currently soaring on anything resembling a high.

"Lonely out here, huh?" Naruto said, thinking out loud.

"What do you mean. We're all here." Sakura replied.

"No! That's not what I mean, it's just-…It's so quiet and stuff. It feels like we're the only people in here, and it's just forest for the rest of it." He clutched the chest of his jacket, pulling it closer into to himself. "It's kinda creepy.

Sasuke raised an eyebrow, wondering why Naruto had apparently gotten nervous when, due to missions, he'd most likely spent more nights sleeping in the forest than his bed in the last year. Then again, the last mission he'd spent in a location like that had been the one we're he'd encountered Ookami, so it was understandable why he'd be a little shaken up. Luckily, Sasuke knew just how to "unshake" him.

"Don't go getting the forest frets now Naruto, it's only the first day."

A fire immediately lit up under his eyes, potentially stronger than the one that was actually burning next to him.

"_I do not have the frets_! I'm just not used to sleeping in a place where there's ten billion people who want to steal your shit!"

"Didn't you just say it felt lonely?" Sakura asked, sending Naruto into a flailing rampage.

"You don't get it- "

"_Shh!"_

Naruto tried to yell, but was quickly cut off by Sasuke shushing him. The Uchiha's expression had snapped from a lazier one, to a steely fixed gaze that was aimed at something in particular. Sakura and Naruto looked at him with a duet of strange glances, receiving only a nod forwards from Sasuke in response.

_**Shh**_**wy**_**yyy**__yyww_yy

A slow, rhythmic squeak gradually become audible from behind the trees, creating the illusion that it was getting closer. The three reached into their pocket, bracing their hands against the cold metal of their tools. Sakura looked sideways, making sure Naruto had the scroll fastened to him properly, before fully turning her attention back towards the hum.

Then it stopped.

A few seconds later, Dosu emerged out of the bushes, sleeves sagging down across his hands. Kin and Zaku flanked his back, a dull expression on both of their faces. Naruto broke out into a smile, dropping his guard completely while Sasuke and Sakura stayed in their defensive position. He didn't look as happy as he had before.

"Hey, Dosu!" Naruto greeted.

The boy was seemingly oblivious to the tension in the air. It was like a freestyle swimmer leaping into the middle of a tsunami, thinking it as their newest practice spot. Dosu said nothing in response, though his one eye did clearly track Naruto as he walked up to him.

"How ya' doing dude? I thought we were the only ones-"

Before Naruto could say another word, Dosu rolled his sleeve up and brandished his melody arm. The Uzumaki's quick reactions nearly kicked in in time to save him, but the attack came too fast for him to dodge. Dosu's melody arm slammed into the side of his head, knocking him down with a clank. Sound waves rippled off the blow, sending waves of disabled nausea down Naruto's mind as he collapsed to the ground.

"Please be quiet." Was all Dosu said, while the wide-eyed Naruto felt volts of sound course around his brain.

A jumble of surprisingly accurate shuriken shot out at the Sound ninja, the three not realizing they'd given Sasuke and Sakura ample time to angle up their throws. Kin leapt up in front of the group, brandishing needles between the slits of her fingers. Her arms moved quickly, scraping the senbon against the sharp metal of the shuriken and redirecting them out of the way of the Sound ninja.

Realizing their first attack had failed, Sasuke rushed forwards, hands weaving into seals. However, despite his impressive speed, he was unable to beat the swiftness of Zaku's sound blasts. The sound ninja pointed his hands out, a stream of fixed, solid sound shooting out from the openings on his hands. It hit him square in the chest and sent him flying back onto the grassy turf of the ground.

"_Sasuke!_" Sakura yelled, not breaking her guard for a second despite the concern.

In comparison to her fear-driven stiffness however, Dosu looked completely casual. His posture had already dipped into a slouched walk, though his eye remained coldly serious still. He turned back to his teammates with a nonchalant tilt of his head, barely even gracing them with his exposed eye.

"Alright, like we planned. Split those two up. The Uchiha is our main priority, only kill Mr. Uzumaki if you must. Ms. Haruno can be dispatched anyway you want; I don't really care. We have around ten minutes." He said, getting nods from the two teammates. Sakura's eyes widened at his words.

He quickly turned back to face Sasuke (who had now activated his sharingan) and Sakura. The eccentric boy clapped his hands together, sending slight shivers through his twitching fingertips.

"_Alright_! Let's go, let's go! No time to waste!" He squeaked, tone switching from sadistic to bubbly in less than a second.

Zaku aimed his hands at the ground before launching up into the air with trails of sound streaking through his trail. He landed between Sakura and Sasuke, using a sharp kick to space the former backwards. His pressure became unrelentingly focused on the girl, unleashing a taijutsu barrage that kept her pacing backwards from the security Sasukes presence had given her. The problem was, the ferocity of his attacks seemed to only be a front for his lack of actual technique. He hit hard, sure, but Sakura was more than able to keep up with him in hand-to-hand.

She backed away from another ferocious attack, dodging out of his range and kicking at his legs. This seemed to hurt Zaku enough that he was forced to concede momentum for a minute, Sakura chipping away at his legs with her attacks. The way he had started fighting, he'd seemed to have a constant need to be grounded, so by tripping him up, Sakura began to turn the tide in her favor. She crouched down low, attempting to sweep the boy off his feet. Her sandal grazed through his heels, eradicating any semblance of his balance and knocking Zaku off-center. With a quick kip-up, Sakura leapt forward, fast enough to try and lay into the boy before he had a chance to even fall down completely. Before she could even hope to touch him though, the holes on his palms suddenly widened. Strangely, this was the same effect that her eyes went through upon seeing this.

_**BANG!**_

A short-range but deadly powerful burst of sound ejected from the boy's palms like a shotgun blast, as opposed to the streams he'd been firing before. It connected flush with Sakura's face, sending her soaring back into the depths of the forest with Zaku quickly pursing her in accordance with the plan.

"Sakura!" Sasuke said, attempting to follow after them.

A quick burst of needles shot out of him, coating the path in front of them with their sharp metallic quills. Sasuke rolled through the barrage, not suffering even a scratch thanks to his sharingan-enhanced reflexes. He looked up at Dosu and Kin, the pairs gazes meeting his immediately. Despite their shared target, their looks could not seem any more different. Kin's was steely, and ultra-focused, whereas Dosu's was both jolly and a slight bit anxious.

"_Dundundun-dun-dun_." The bandaged boy sang to himself, fingers cracking along in rhythm.

Sasuke analyzed the two quickly. Kin did not have anything that really stood out aside from her ultra-tough demeanor, whereas Dosu's most visible point of interest lay on his wrist. A large metallic gauntlet with several holes that run over it. Whirring and ringing sounds occasionally jittered out from its openings, often times in tune with the notes that Dosu was muttering. Naruto's body continued to lay where Dosu had knocked him out, the boy not having moved an inch since the event happened.

Sasuke mashed his hands into seals, only for a rain of needles to ensure it was either attack or move. He chose the latter, rolling sideways but keeping his handsigns going. He leapt upward into the air, attempting to throw off Kin's aim as she reallocated herself to target him.

"_Fire release: phoenix dandelion jutsu!" _He yelled, unleashing a barrage of tiny fire balls along with his breath.

This jutsu was less powerful then his usual phoenix flower, with the fireballs themselves being only about the size of a water bottle but with this reduced mass came increased crowd control. The bullets of fire sizzled past the needles Kin attempted to throw at him, knocking each one off of its intended course while still having leftovers for the two-sound ninja. Dosu ran out in front of Kin, thrusting his melody arm out. Whispers of sounds that had been stored shot out of the gauntlet's holes and floated through the air like ghosts. There was enough power behind these shots to snuff the remaining fireballs out before they could reach the two.

Sasuke landed, running full steam ahead towards the two. He noticed a skittishness in Dosu's eye that had begun to display after the fire jutsu. He leapt forward, attempting to kick his fore in the head, only to be blocked by Kin. The girl sliced at him with the sharpness of her senbon, Sasuke backing away as to avoid their slashes. Dosu quickly joined her in her pursuit, the two constantly swapping their fighting formation in an attempt to throw Sasuke off his guard. Kin effortlessly weaved the needles around her knuckles, wielding them in the same way an animal would a pair of claws. Even with the power of the sharingan, she was still quick enough that Sasuke felt threatened. The sharp metal grazed past his cheek, leaving a shallow slash against it, before a second one shot forward with aim for his throat.

Sasuke leaned back, rolling over onto his shoulders to try and avoid the needles as well as kick Kin backwards. However, he soon realized that this had all been part of the duo's plan. Kin launched a bombardment of needles a few inches away from his shoulder. Now, if he was to follow his intended path of backward motion, he would most likely end up impaling his feet on the upright needles. Kicking Kin back with both of his feet, Sasuke stumbled up, the precision needed to stand up while not being stabbed being incredibly precise. He awkwardly leapt back, attempting to vault over the hall of senbon with dwindling success.

Dosu rushed forward, jumping onto Kins back before springing toward Sasuke. The Uchiha's stilted jump had left him defenseless in the air, a fact which Dosu was quick to take advantage off. He smashed his melody gauntlet into Sasuke's chest, sending a jolt of discharging sound waves through his system as well as forcefully slamming him down. Spasms ran through Sasuke's body as he landed in the pile of senbon. Sharp strings of pain shot up through his body with the needles embedding themselves into his back and legs. Even when Sasuke had realized he was falling into the senbon pit, he hadn't expected it to hurt this _bad_. The residual jitters of sound that Dosu had hit him with pulsated through his body, each one amplifying the pain more and more.

That must've been it. Dosu had used the vibrations of his soundwaves to overload Sasuke's nerves and make them hyper-sensitive. This turned what would have been at best a slight sting due to adrenaline into a burning sensation that ran up the entirety of his body. His sharingan flickered in the light, refocusing itself on his targets despite his injury. Kin was now running forward, a triplet of needles weaved through her knuckles. Sasuke moved quickly, launching himself up to his feet despite the pain. Luckily, there was no longer any fear of stepping on a needle now that practically all of them were stuck into him. In this fact lay his newest strategy. With sharp motion, Sasuke brought his leg up high for a kick. Kin instinctively swerved out of the way, only to realize too late that this had been what he had intended her to do. Sasuke kicked sideways, slamming the needles stuck to his leg into Kin's arm.

She grunted in pain, only to swiftly eat a second strike from Sasuke as he used his other leg to kick into her abdomen. The pricking of the needles, even though it was minor, threw Kin's balance way off and with her balance decimated, she was left open for Sasuke's final attack. He threw his whole body forward back-first, much like you'd expect out of a hedgehog. His back collided with her front, depositing the last of the senbon in her like a pin cushion. Kin at least had the foresight to close her eyes, but that did very little in minimizing the collective sting that erupted through her body.

She landed on the ground, regaining autonomy quickly enough to _just _roll out of the way of Sasuke attempting to stomp her head in. Quickly getting back onto her feet, she crouched near Dosu, who quickly threw out a blast of sound. Now, this blast was limited in its range, but its purpose was as more of a deterrent than anything else. In this respect, it worked, because Sasuke immediately begun to back away from the two. He once again scanned over their forms, trying to memorize the way they fought into his head. Kin was quick and deadly precise, but didn't have much in the way of actually doing damage by herself. Dosu seemed to easily be the more dangerous and capable out of the two, but also seemed slightly skittish for reasons Sasuke couldn't figure out. Maybe it was the jutsu that had scared him, after all it was-

Wait. Where was Naruto's body?

* * *

Sakura stuck a hand over her mouth in an attempt to keep her heavy breathing in. She balanced her back against the rough wood of the trees, the rustling of Zaku's footsteps on the ground booming out just a little bit behind her. His own deep breathes echoed through the metal of his respirator, before slivering through the crevasse of his upper lip and fading into the cool night air. Sakura had managed to outmaneuver him early on, soon realizing that she had little hope of engaging properly in close quarters. Her face still occasionally twitched as a result impact of his sound cannon, which quickly sent a similar jolt of fear down here spine while she prayed that he wasn't observant enough to hear her blinking or the sound of her lips. She gently peeked out the corner of the tree trunk, hoping that the night would be enough to obscure her teal eyes from his view.

He wasn't even looking in her direction, thankfully. His posture was rigid, clearly frustrated he'd been forced into a game of cat and mouse instead of a knock-down, drag-out brawl. He awkwardly circled around on the spot, holding his arms out in hopes that he'd see a flicker of her somewhere.

"_**Hoot hoot!"**_

The sound of an owl in the treetops brought his attention upwards, the boy _immediately_ firing a blast into the crowns of the forest. This made one thing clear: he was either incredibly trigger-happy, or he couldn't tell Sakura's voice from the sounds of a bird. She chose to believe the first one.

He gently stowed his aim, clapping the holes of his hands together a few times before resuming his perimeter search.

_A recharge time?_ Sakura thought to herself.

She could use this. She grazed a finger over the ground, careful not to press down too hard and make a sound, before clutching a small stone in her hand. She tossed it to the floor of one of the other trees, the sound of its descent immediately being greeted with a blast from the boy. This was her que. She brandished her kunai and stood up, running forwards. Zaku turned on his heel at the sound of her footsteps, but it was too late.

"_Hyah_!"

Sakura plunged her knife into his shoulder and began ruthlessly stabbing it over and over. Specks of blood stained the Sound boy's tan top, spilling over with a bright enough red to match the characters on his shirt. She was swinging wildly, eyes locked shut in an attempt to block out the sight of the knife plunging into Zaku. His muffled screams echoed through his respirator, arms flailing confusedly as he attempted to get her off. He eventually managed to grip onto her hair, throwing her onto her back as he shakily tried to stand up. Sakura quickly rebounded, lurching forward but before she could even get back up to her feet properly, Zaku's sound shotgun burst into her face.

She flew back again, spine cracking against dirt. Flecks of mud flew up; the process being repeated over and over as Zaku began to aim more shots at the downed girl. Sakura didn't even have a chance to get up as waves of sound continued to blast into her body, each one rattling her down to her core. Grime from the ground began entangling itself with in her pink locks, each of Zaku's blasts pushing her further along the floor. Eventually, she found herself with her backed pressed against the reverse side of the hiding place she'd just used. She sat up against the front of the tree bark with her mind still racing, vision only just beginning to come back to her. The images in front of her melded together slightly, forcing the girl to squint to try and get a better picture.

There were a lot of thoughts that could've ran through her mind at this moment, but the one that was primarily lodged to the front of the pack (aside from "fuck, everything hurts") was why Zaku had apparently stopped his assault. It appeared to her that his first attacks had been fueled by adrenaline, a rush that overruled the stab wounds in his shoulder. Now, with his left arm beginning to go numb from the blood loss, he realized he had more important things to worry about than Sakura. He rolled his shoulder, attempting to get something in the way of motion going. Unfortunately, only his wrist and hand seemed to be responding right now.

A few seconds, Zaku looked up at Sakura with absolutely _lethal_ intent in his eyes. The sound of heavy breathing rang out of the respirator, amplifying the mania in his eyes tenfold. He slowly raised his non-stabbed arm to Sakura, lining his hand up directly with her head. The whirring bundle of noise began to vibrate from his hollow hands, indicating that in mere seconds, Sakura face could be caved in by an unrelenting wave of sound.

_**BANG!**_

Out of nowhere, Naruto _leapt _forward from the trees, slamming his fist into the back of Zaku's head. The same eyes that had just been unhinged with mania suddenly became sealed with a fading laziness that came when you had just been punched in the back of the head by someone who hit hard.

_Naruto? _Sakura thought to herself, vision still so shaken by Zaku's battery that she could only make out an orange blob.

_Wait, no…Naruto's? _

Make that multiple orange blobs.

A mob of shadow clones descended upon Zaku like a shark in the water, stomping a punching at his already downed form with seemingly no regard for whether or not they would actually hurt him.

"_Get in there!" _

"_Beat him up!_"

"_Get his ass!_"

The mob shouted, while a lone Naruto scurried away over to Sakura.

"You okay?'" He asked, offering her a hand.

Sakura nodded, gripping onto it with enough shakiness that she nearly pulled Naruto down with her. She managed to get to her feat, breaths still rigged from the punishment she'd taken before. The sound waves began to emit again, bursting through the confines of the shadow clone crowd like rays of light. Zaku was clearly able to recover, but he had a hell of a way to go to escape the mob considering how many shadow clones were surrounding him.

"What's this guy's deal?" The real one asked.

"He can shoot sound and stuff like that. He needs his hands to do it though." Sakura said, stretching her arms out to try and get her body back into form.

She reached into her tool pouch, retrieving a small white ball with a smooth surface.

"Do you know what this is?"

"Oh yeah! Glue bomb, classic!" Naruto nodded, recalling some of the pranks he'd pulled with that very item.

"Get it between his hands. This is industrial-strength, and his left shoulders already fucked. He can't do anything with his hands stuck together"

"Can you move alright?" Naruto asked.

This time it was Sakura's turn to nod.

"Okay then, keep it on 'ya and pass it to me when I'm behind him." Naruto said.

The pair quickly returned their attention to Zaku, who had just about gotten finished with the last of the shadow clones. He had not disposed of them all without injury though, Sakura noting a distinct limp in his left leg.

Naruto clapped his hands together in a shadow clone jutsu, a large number of clones popping into existence as he did so. The real one quickly fell back into their lines, masking his true identity to even Sakura.

"_Let's go_!" The clones cried, the large mob beginning to dash forward.

Sakura trailed along beside them, keeping the glue bomb tucked tightly into her grip. Zaku immediately began to fire sound bursts forward but this strategy that had worked so well prior quickly revealed itself to be incompatible with the battle's current climate. His blasts had worked very well when he had the privilege of being able to individually target people, but thanks to the _wave _of clones that was descending upon him, this was no longer an option. Each blast would simply send the clone that hit it back into the body of another clone, which barley slowed either down and unlike most people who fought Naruto's shadow clones, he wasn't even able to effectively wean the numbers down either. The sound bursts he was firing had been made so wide and unfocused in the interest of crowd control, that they lacked enough punch to effectively disperse the clones. If Zaku wanted to cull the numbers advantage, he'd have to switch to the more hard-hitting shots he'd used on Sakura, but then he wouldn't be able to focus on enough of the ninjas to keep them at bay before they reached him. What he really needed was a new strategy…

_**SLING!**_

The aura of his sound waves suddenly became hyper-focused, imbuing them with a new found sharpness. Their status as projectiles suddenly transformed into something that was closer to a pair of massively long-range swords, Zaku waving his arms around as he sliced through the army of clones with ease. Sakura rolled out of the way, only _barely _managing to doge out of the way of the sound length. A small tuff of her pink hair fluttered down to the ground, intwining between the grass while she dashed forward. The clones began to spread around in an attempt to dampen the effectiveness of Zaku's ultra-fine blades. Now he had to aim more precisely, giving the clones more opportunity to dodge out of the way when he sliced at them. It didn't help that his control of the blades was not great with the weapons continually losing their sharpness and thus, effectiveness. This forced him to continually reload to try and keep his distance from the stampeding mob of Narutos.

The distance between the two forces began to shorten by the second, Zaku flailing around in an attempt to hit any target he could. One of them brandished a fuma shuriken, unwinding it's blades out before throwing it forward. There was little threat in Zaku's eyes as it sailed through the air. Even with its glimmering serration, the clones aim had been so bad that there was no way it hit Zaku unless a massive gust of wind blew in from the east. It pathetically landed by his feet, his attention staying fixated on Sakura. The girl's presence had been further exposed now that the clone's numbers had dwindled down somewhat. He thrashed his sonic blades at her, forcing her to slickly slither around them if she wished to remain anatomically intact. Despite generally having recovered, she was still clearly slowed thanks to his earlier barrage of sound and was not moving at one hundred percent.

Sakura frantically dodged through his sound, until the sharp whirring of the swords dwindled. This indicated to her that he was about to reload, meaning she had a chance to respond with an attack. Now, if you looked at the battlefield with her known skillset in mind, it didn't look like she could do much except throw something at him that he'd be able to blast away in time but this was untrue. Afterall, she'd picked up a few things during her chunin exam training…

Her hands weaved between each other, before she stuffed them on the ground.

"_Earth release: pebble hail!_"

Her chakra coursed through the ground, creating small chasms in the soil which were quickly utilized by the rising stone below. A barrage of rocks, not particularly big but incredibly fast, shot forward at Zaku, clumps of dirt peeling off them as they raced through the air. If they were aimed at his chest or arms, they probably wouldn't do much more than sting and bruise if she was lucky, but they weren't aimed at those parts. They were aimed at his hurt leg that Sakura had noticed earlier.

The stones smashed into his knee, hard enough to nearly send Zaku down to one leg. A swell of pride coursed through Sakura as one of the only two earth release techniques she'd managed to learn had been effective. Zaku gripped his leg to try and stabilize it, before refocusing his aim at Sakura. There was a small one-second stretch where the girl thought he may slice her head clean off with his sound blades, but the rustling of the treetops behind him quickly drew his attention. Naruto leapt out from the leafy-abyss; hands held out in a catching position.

"Now, Sakura!" He called.

Sakura tossed the glue-bomb upwards, it's smooth white finish sailing through the air with intense rotation. It glided forward, a perfect shot that seemed deadest for Naruto's hands. However, Zaku was not about to let this happen, eyes widening in fright as he caught a glimpse of the glue-bomb. He aimed at Naruto, firing a large blast of sound that rocketed towards the boy at the same pace as the ball. Even if the Uzumaki got his hands on the item, he'd be blasted to hell and back before he could get even a slither of a chance to use it. The twin entities raced towards his form, an expression of panic breaking out onto his face as he realized that there was no way he was getting out of this.

Except there was, and there always had been.

Naruto did not grab the glue-bomb, instead he spiked it down below to Zaku. The sound blast crashed into his chest, but it wasn't really his chest to begin with. It was a clone's. Zaku's eyes became filled with confusion as the glue-bomb sailed down in his direction, the only possibility in his mind being that they were attempting to trick him into catching it. Then a burst of smoke blew up from his side, the _real _Naruto leaping forward from the "shuriken" that had landed around his feet. Zaku had so little time to react to this, that he had no way of curbing his instinctual reload procedure. His hands mashed together quickly, but not quick enough as Naruto took hold of the glue ball and slammed it into the middle of his palms. A tacky explosion of white coursed over his hands, setting and sealing them together before he could even hope to tear them apart.

Naruto leapt towards his helpless opponent, Zaku only managing to hold up his stuck mass of hand in a failed attempt to block when Naruto's elbow smashed into his head.

_**BAM!**_

This was around the same time that Sakura decked him in the back of his skull. Considering he was stationary, both of these blows caught him flush, dropping him to the ground.

After a few seconds, it became clear that Zaku was not getting up anytime soon. Small pants of previously-held breath came from both Sakura and Naruto, before the blonde boy spoke up, a serious look in his eye.

"Sasuke's fighting the other two, we've gotta go help him."

Sakura nodded, the two quickly making their move away from Zaku's body. Little did they know, that the whole time, they had been watched from the treetops. Beady, serpentine eyes peered down at the pair, a small smile gracing the person's features as they observed them.

_It seems as if I underestimated them. How unfortunate. _

* * *

Sasuke's jagged breaths crackled up from his throat, the Uchiha boy clearly exhausted from the against fight the duo of sound ninja. Fighting either one by themselves would've been difficult enough, especially Dosu. For him to try and take the two of them on by himself was only an attempt to hold them off for the moment. Blood streaked down his shirt and shorts, courtesy from the senbon that had been stuck into him. Even with the power of the sharingan, Kins aim had been good enough to tag him multiple times over. Even though needles weren't particularly powerful as a weapon by themselves, Sasuke was seriously starting to think about how many more he could take before the sheer culmination of their wounds became a concern.

What he was trying to do now was escape from the two's attention, but this seemed to be an impossibility. Kin's unflinching eyes were razer-focused onto him, ready to swiftly strike with a senbon barrage if he were to step even an inch out of line. He'd succeeded in making sure he kept them at a distance, but even that advantage was beginning to slip with the depletion of his shuriken and kunai. He cast a clone jutsu, visual copies of himself beginning to appear out of nowhere. They circled around his area, attempting to create enough of a distraction let Sasuke blend in for the moment. Dosu simply scoffed in response, shooting a bolt of soundwaves forward. At first, Sasuke thought this was a regular attack and he and his clones attempted do doge accordingly.

However, in reality, the "attack" was harmless. Its wobbling sound served a different purpose, that being the illumination of illusion. A regular clone jutsu was not solid, and therefor sound didn't interact with it in the same way it would a normal human. The outlines of the clone's bodies began to become wavy and unfocused when the waves hit them, while Sasuke stayed fixed and stable. Dosu sprinted forwards, readying his melody arm as he approached Sasuke.

"Wait, Dosu!" Kin shouted.

Her words immediately made the perception of Dosu's rush-down switch from strategic to hasty, a fact which only worsened as he shouted back.

"We don't have much time Kin! **He'll be angry**!"

Sasuke quickly capitalized, embers beginning to flicker out of his mouth before finally, a massive ball of flame was released. It hurtled towards Dosu, scorching the ground underneath it with it's crackling heat. Now, Sasuke had expected this to serve as more of a deterrent or a distraction than anything else, and had already begun planning for his next move in the inevitable even that Dosu countered the fireball with his sound. This did not happen.

The freight train-like momentum of Dosu's charge completely halted, the boy standing up straight with a far away look in his eye. The sizzling orange of the fire reflected through his pupils, his mental state switching from focused and antsy to lost and frightened. The fireball continued to hurtle towards him, yet it did nothing to get him to budge even an inch. All he did was raise his hand up to cover his exposed eye.

_A boy with short brown hair throws his hands up, screaming in pain. His room is engulfed in flames, the smoldering smell of fire and smoke clogging up his throat. He screams out for parents who had abandoned him at the first sign of danger, the scent of his dads recent drinking binge mixing with the flames to create an aroma most vile. Strange pulsating waves of energy radiate from one of his arms, while the other is covering over his left eye. The crackling of the inferno is intense. It hurts his ears and eyes. The sensations are too much. _

_He cannot see anything. There is no one to help him. _

"_Dosu!" _Kin screamed, pushing the boy out of the path of the fireball.

Not even when they slammed against the ground did he snap back to life. Instead, he continued to hold his hand up against his eye, muttering something incoherent to himself. Kin tried to shake him lucid, but Dosu refused to respond. His mind was so out of it that he didn't even register anything in front of him. As far as she was concerned, he may as well have been on a different planet, which would've been okay had Sasuke Uchiha not been charging towards them on this one at this very second. She reached into her pocket, only to find her senbon completely depleted. This left her with only one choice. If only as a time-buying measure, Kin put her hands through the seals and pointed them forward. Soon after, Sasuke's whole word became black.

It took his eyes a few seconds to adjust, the echoey eternity of darkness completely overtaking his view. Small blurs of things around him would appear into existence with a slight hum, but they would quickly disappear as quickly as they came. Each step across the ground would bring forth a splatter of vision to the ground below, but the darkness would quickly swallow it up again. He quickly identified it as a genjutsu. Normally, in a situation such as this, you would start to become very frightened. Why wouldn't you, the rules of the word had suddenly ceased to exist, becoming forfeit to some random genin. While he took this into account, Sasuke couldn't help but smile. He'd finally get a chance to use this against something more than Kakashi's simple illusions in training. With a deep breath he activated his sharingan ability, the same one he'd used when he had awakened it against Haku.

It was genjutsu nullification.

The sharingan flickered in the black abyss, before igniting with a strong red glow. This proved infectious, running over the walls and illuminating the darkness of the genjutsu realm, while the echoy atmosphere was dropped in favor of a tight, constrained soundscape. He immediately spotted Kin crouching in front of him, trying to yell Dosu awake. The constrained walls of the genjutsu shattered around him, a shocked expression gracing Kin's features as she realized what had happened. She couldn't act on this shock though, Sasuke already running over to her before she had time to snap out of it. She shakily attempted to dodge out of the way, but it was already too late at that point. Sasuke's foot slammed into her face, sending her to the ground. This was swiftly followed by the boy leaping up into the air and stomping down on her temple, forcibly switching the lightbulb in her mind off.

He quickly crouched down to her body, rustling through her pockets before snatching the scroll. It was conveniently of the heaven variety, meaning this fight had at least been worth something. He still had no idea what the sound nin had wanted with him though, especially since they had signaled out both him and Naruto while completely discarding Sakura. They hadn't even gone after their scroll while Naruto was downed, so clearly their intentions had lay elsewhere. Could they have possibly been after the-

"_Sasuke! We're coming!_" Naruto announced, bursting from the bushes with a mob of clones as well as Sakura marching behind him.

The pair had expected to find Sasuke on the brink of death, barely being able to hold off the devious sound ninja. Instead, in their eyes, it looked as if Sasuke had somehow managed to beat both of them by himself.

"Woah! You kicked both their asses! How'd you do that?!" Naruto exclaimed, clearly surprised.

Sasuke shrugged, making sure to hold the scroll up when doing so so his teammates could see just how well he'd fought them. He _could _point out that they were beating the ever-loving shit out of him, and that he'd only really managed to "beat" them because one had mentally broken down and he'd surprised the other, but that would be kind of a mouthful, so instead he shortened it down to-

"Skill. They weren't even that hard to beat honestly." He lied.

Sakura quickly strode up to him, a stern look on her face. Unlike Naruto, the tension in her posture hadn't changed, probably on account of the fact she was smart enough to realize Sasuke was bullshitting. Afterall, he'd just said that his opponents weren't that hard to beat when he was covered in so many needle wounds that he resembled a connect the dots coloring page. Sakura gripped onto his collar, yanking it down to get a better look at his neck and abdomen. Shallow but plentiful wounds ran down it, obviously having been pierced by senbon.

"We need to get someplace safe and bandage you up. You'll start slowing down soon if we don't." She ordered.

Sasuke was taken aback by her forcefulness, expecting her directions to be significantly less stern then they ended up being. Nevertheless, he nodded, preparing to direct the three of them out of this place before Naruto cut them off.

"Hey, Dosu's still awake!" He shouted.

Sasuke turned around quickly, hoping that Naruto was not saying Dosu had snapped out of his trance. Luckily, the sound nin was still cowering over himself, clutching his exposed eye while hushes of murmured mania escaped from his lips. It was utterly incoherent, but Sasuke didn't want to take the chance of leaving him conscious for now. If they did, there was a good chance Dosu ended up tailing them whenever they went next, and he was in no rush to fight any of them again. He put his hand out to Sakura while holding up "shush" motion to Naruto.

"You got a kunai?" He whispered.

"Yeah." She replied, digging into her pouch and retrieving the small knife.

She handed it over to him, Sasuke bracing it in a battle position as he tiptoed over to Dosu. The bandaged boy still seemed out of it, but he was not willing to lower his guard for even second in case he was faking it. Well, that was what he wanted to think, but Dosu's dismal display was so creepy that he couldn't help but be a little put-off. The sound-boys' murmurs would twist into sobs at lighting speed, before switch right back to the utterly incomprehensible chatter that he had been speaking before. His hand was clutching his eye so hard, Sasuke thought for a second he might have been trying to dig it out of his skull. Something about the fire had really set him off…

He gently loomed over his foe, attempting to quell the nerves that came with witnessing Dosu's erratic behavior. A simple kick to the head would probably knock him out clean, but if Dosu were to suddenly become lucid, he'd have to use the knife. For now, though, all he had to do was line up the shot. He crouched forward, posture lurching as he came closer to Dosu's face.

Then Dosu took his hand off his eye.

"Boo."

Sasuke lunged for his throat but he was too slow. A shield of soundwave exploded from the melody arm, locking the kunai in place as if it were a magnet trying to be pushed towards another magnet. Dosu clenched his fist, causing the soundwaves to implode in on themselves and send Sasuke flying forwards. The Uchiha rolled across the ground tumbling over himself countless times before he finally managed to get a foothold in the turf. He looked up, weaving the signs for a phoenix flower jutsu, with his eyes staying locked upon Dosu. Just as he was about to release it though, his target was forcibly shifted away as Dosu _grabbed Kins body and held it up as a shield. _A clean hit on the girl like he was positioned for would mean a barbaric trial by fire that would end with her no more than a flaming corpse. Thus, Sasuke hesitated, attempting to find a better angle to shoot from but by the time he did, Dosu had already began sprinting towards the rest of Team 7.

He had two minutes.

"Oh shit, get him!" Naruto screamed, rallying the idle clones into battle.

Dosu was one step ahead though. He weaved hand seals before slamming his palms down on the ground.

"_Earth Release: geyser pathways!" _

At first there was little in the way of actual concrete effect on the ground. A few spots crinkled up with slight cracks in them, sure, but the attack seemed to have been useless. At the very least, Naruto's clones weren't phased. That was, until roaring fountains of pure sound came tearing through the land, launching them way up into the air.

_He must've used earth release to make paths in the ground and then vibrated his sound through it! _Sasuke thought, rushing over to the group.

The real Naruto leapt forward, though his usual bombastic taijutsu was more reserved as he recalled the effect Dosu's arm had had on him when he'd been hit. Naruto threw a clean duo of punches which Dosu dodged. This duo was quickly turned into a quartet at the one remaining shadow clone joined the fight, leaping on Dosu's back and raining punches into the side of his head. He left just as quickly as he came though, Dosu implanting the soundwaves through his own body which not only reflected the blows of the real Naruto but also dispersed the clone into a puff of smoke.

Sakura threw a sharp streak of wire shot out at him, clearly attempting to take hold of his melody arm. He allowed the wire to wrap around his wrist, but before Sakura could even hope to capitalize, he reverberated his sound waves through it's material like an electric current. This jolt of sound shocked into Sakura's system, leaving her shaking as Dosu used his grip on the wire to swing her to the center of the clearing. Naruto bounced back at him no more than a few seconds later but once again, was unable to properly engage his foe in taijutsu. In the blink of an eye, Dosu had already body flickered next to him, gripping the Uzumaki by the head. Naruto flailed uselessly, while Dosu pushed his right hand through seals.

A sharp screaming sensation filled Naruto's ears, powerful enough in its sound that it felt like they were being pumped full of water. His whole body shook like he'd grabbed an electrical wire, a massive amount of sound coursing through it. Dosu swiftly shifted his focus to the approaching Sasuke before throwing Naruto at him like a baseball. The two collided, the same shaking that had overtaken Naruto's body being transferred to Sasuke as they flew forward into the center of the area where Sakura also lay. The three slowly got to their feet, remnant waves of sound still spasming through them.

Dosu looked over them, clearly nervous despite his control of the situation. He gently clutched his hands together, grip tight enough to white his knuckles as he muttered something.

"_Please lord forgive me_, _I'm running out of time._" He murmured, taking a small scroll out of his pocket.

The paper began to unfurl from its grip constraints seemingly by itself, fluttering up into the air. Dosu bit down against his own thumb, drawing blood that began magnetically streaking upwards across the page scroll. The crimson fluid dotted up the paper, which had started to circle around the top of the clearing. The laws of gravity had no bearing on the paper's ascent, as it created a large circular shape around the treetops. Stirring from their spots on the ground, Team 7 looked up at Dosu with a deep undercurrent of fear in their expressions. Due to his bite, the bandages around his face had torn, their rough paper material giving way to the smoothness of his teeth. While you couldn't make out much more than a few assorted incisors, it, when combined with the flecks of blood that was now seeping into the incisions of his bandages, made him look even more terrifying then he had prior.

"_**Cursed Summoning Art**__: _Caging Serenade!" Dosu cried out, the scroll dispersing into a puff of smoke.

The genins eyes widened as they saw what he had just brought forth into the world.

On the slopes of the treetops sat a circle of…well, there weren't even words to describe them. They were vaguely humanoid in shape, but with bleached white skin, their facial features so mutilated and disjointed that no one who was being honest with themselves could consider these things human. Some had multiple eyes, some just had tight stretches of skin packed over where the eyes should be. Their limb anatomy was disgusting, ranging from having multiple arms to being limbless blobs that only had small nubs where clearly stunted finger and toes had sprouted from. It was a revolting sight, enough to intensely instill nausea in the observing genin.

"What the fuck are these things?" Naruto asked, voice quiet with disgust.

The sight of these creatures had apparently dulled his reasoning capabilities, because the question was useless. It wasn't as if Sasuke or Sakura could possibly know what these things were, they looked like something out of a novel or manga. The unease only got worse when the ones with working mouths started mumbling.

"_where am i." _

"_my family."_

"_the lord."_

"_it hurts."_

"_how could he."_

"_i don't know where I am." _

"_help me_."

Despite the numerous defects that separated them visually, each one spoke with exactly the same tone of voice. It was raspy and low, utterly brainless and only really being audible due to the sheer number of creatures that were speaking at once. Sakura couldn't stand the sight much longer, lurching over the ground while gagging. Naruto just looked to the side, eyes locked shut. It was because of this that Sasuke was the only one to notice what they were holding. Trumpets, symbols, flutes and harps. All instruments that made a lot of noise. His eyes flashed back to Dosu, who was sharply smiling through the gaps in his bandages. The erratic nervousness that had occasionally permeated through his posture seemed to have faded again, the whirring of his melody arm soothing him for the moment.

"I would like some sound please." He said.

_**BRRRIIIIIIIUIISFISIFFFFFFFF**_

The creatures began to play, smashing their instruments together with no regard for actual melody, just pure sound. Sasuke leapt up to try and cut Dosu off before his strategy could kick into action, but with the distance between them, this was no more than a pipe dream. The melody arm took control of the sonic melting pot, turning it into a massive blob of sharp sound waves. Sasuke was pushed to the ground, gravity beating him against the ground while a similar sensation overtook Naruto and Sakura. It felt like their ears were literally being torn apart, vibrations echoing through their skull and blurring their vision. They screamed out in pain, but this was only really severed to fuel the power of the sound dome.

Funnily, thanks to the control of Dosu's melody arm, anyone who walked past the clearing would hear, at most, a faint purring. Inside however, it sounded like the quasi-infinite generation of nails on a chalkboard. The sound ninja laughed manically to himself, as he frantically thrashed around with his arm. This directed the sound's direction, each toss of his hand rolling the writhing Team 7 around with it. He was having so much fun, that the time limit that had previously dominated his thoughts and actions was forgotten. The rush of inflicting pain had overtaken him, each second Team 7 spent in his grasp enriching his laughter with a newfound glee. He threw them up and threw them down, slamming them into the dirt and then rolling them through the own filth. It would start showing on their bodies soon, all he to do was-

_**FWOOSH!**_

There was no sound. Dosu's frantic conducting quickly went from deadly to useless in less than a second, the creatures dissolving into a puff of smoke. His eye alarmingly looked over the scene, ears popping as the screeching sound that had just ruled over the area gradually vanishing into the air. Had they decomposed? No, some of them were fresher, they would have all done so at once. Besides, it was obvious due to the smoke that they'd been dismissed through the summoning link, but that could only mean-

_**Brriiiiiiiing!**_

"Times up."

Dosu's blood ran cold when he heard the voice behind him.

Naruto, Sasuke and Sakura sat up, bodies still partly numb from the onslaught of noise. The Uzumaki stretched out his back, probably naturally being the most durable out of all of them.

"Are you guys alright?" He asked, twitching his facial features to try and get some feeling back into them.

Sakura nodded, while Sasuke stared past him.

"Who's that?" He said.

Naruto turned, find another boy walking over towards Dosu. He was dressed in a tan top, a thick purple belt wrapped snuggly around his waist and blue earrings that dangled through the mess of brown hair that ran down his back. He was not at all imposing, barely being taller than Dosu yet the boy was treating him like he was a giant. Dosu had begun shaking, fear clear in his eye and only growing as the other boy approached him. He was holding a small pocket watch in his hand, it's presence only causing the shaking to intensify the closer he got to Dosu.

"M-m-my lord_._ Why did you do that?! I had them in _the p-palm of my hand!_Just a few more seconds and I would've won, _**I know I would've!"**_ Dosu cried, voice fluctuating between a whisper and a scream.

The boy smiled, not returning his hysteria in anyway.

"Dosu, I said you had thirty minutes and you were unable to capture them in that time limit." He said back calmly.

"_But- " _

_**WACK!**_

The boy struck Dosu hard enough to nearly break the bandages on his face with only the side of his palm. Dosu spiraled to the floor, cheek clearly stinging from the blow.

Yet he did not fight back.

Not even when the other boy grabbed him by the neck and pulled him back to his feet. He tucked Dosu into the crest of his chin, trapping the Sound boy in what looked like both a chokehold and an embrace. The taller boy rested his chin on Dosu's forehead, beady, slanted eyes staring down at him with a cruel gaze.

"Your performance today has been incredibly disappointing." He hissed venomously, all the while keeping the same smug grin on his face.

"I'm sorry my lord."

Dosu's voice was now locked at a murmur. There was clearly a conscious effort to keep it this way, considering the inflections in his voice threatened to break out into a scream every few seconds.

"You wasted _my_ subjects, you wasted _your _jutsu, you wasted your teammates potential and, worst of all, you wasted _your own _potential_._" The boy whispered back harshly.

"_But I_\- "Dosu tried to defend, voice breaking into a loud sob.

"**Dosu.**"

He shut up immediately.

"How do you expect to join the four when you can't even handle a couple of genin?"

There was no reply.

"Exactly. I had such high, _high _hopes for you when I brought you in, but I can't help but feel you are failing to live up to them."

"I'm sorry." Dosu whispered back, tears beginning to stain his bandages.

"You should be. I want you to round up your Zaku and Kin and find another two scrolls. I'm sure you understand the potential consequences that would befall you if you are to disappoint me twice in one day, don't you?"

Dosu nodded hard enough to nearly dislocate his head from his shoulders.

"Good boy."

The other boy gently kissed Dosu on the forehead, before shoving him backwards with enough force to send him to the ground. His attention **snapped **onto Team 7, gaze that had previously been fixated on Dosu's soul now no longer even acknowledging his existence.

"Run along now, I have more important matters to attend to."

Dosu was stunned silent for a couple seconds, before hastily pushing himself onto his feet.

"Yes, my lord! Thank you, my lord!" He _screamed_, breaking of into a desperate sprint.

"Now, what to do with you." The brown-haired boy mused as he walked towards Team 7.

The genin had only just began to get full control of their bodies back and seeing the frankly bizarre interaction between Dosu and this guy had not made them feel assured in the slightest. All three were on-guard, brandishing weapons and tools as a way to try and deter the boy. However, it was clear from his cocky stride and self-assured smirk that it would take more than simple ninja weapons to curb his self-confidence.

"Who are you?" Sasuke yelled, not recognizing the squiggle symbol on the boy's forehead protector.

It definitely wasn't the same as the sound village though, which made his power over Dosu all the odder. Just who was this guy?

"That's a difficult question." The boy said with a grin, smiling deep enough to show the sharpness of his fang-like teeth.

"See, this boy's name was Shiore."

He waved his hand over his face to signify his statement.

"However, Sasuke Uchiha, you may know me better as- "

_**CRACK!**_

He lurched backward with animalistic flexibility. The three genins eyes widened as he seemingly shattered every bone in his spine by leaning back, body beginning to arch over like he'd just had his back bones turned into jello.

"What the hell?" Naruto mumbled, grimacing at the sight.

_**CRACK!**_

Then he pushed himself forward, cracking his bones back into place with visceral sound. He was now taller, although that may have been an understatement. He was disgustingly lanky, arms drooping of the joints of slim, anatomically-tortured shoulders. He was now significantly taller than any of the genin, easily being able to match them even if two of them were to climb on each other's shoulders. His hair faded from a moss brown to a deep black, the boy bringing his hand up to his face. He promptly _**ripped the skin off, **_reducing his former facial features into a moist lump of mush that he casually threw to the side. Now, the trio of genin could gaze upon his real face.

_White skin. _

_Serpentine features. _

_Purple outlines. _

"Orochimaru." He finished.

The chirping of the crickets became the dominant soundscape for a small stretch of a silence, not a single word echoing through the cold night air.

Then Sasuke turned to them, legitimate fear embedded into the very core of his eyes.

He said one thing.

"Run."


	31. Orochimaru

"Run."

This was all Sasuke said before the three genin broke off into a sprint. They disappeared into the grasps of the woods, Orochimaru in hot pursuit behind them as they ran. Chakra pumped into their soles and allowed them to jump from tree to tree with a hurried swiftness. The haste in their feet snapped branches and cracked wood. For a few seconds, Orochimaru's presence was an effectively ignored with the three simply trying as hard as they could to make distance. Thoughts raced through Sasuke's mind, paced in time as he leapt through the trees.

_"Orochimaru has Konoha in his sights and will not rest until he's got its treasure". What could that mean. __He thought, recalling Naruto's paraphrased passage. _

_I doubt it's monetary if he's chasing after us. He clearly wants something __**we **__have…it must be either the sharingan or the nine-tails. Or maybe it's something we don't know about. _

If their pursuer had been more in the vein of Zabuza, then it would for sure be about Naruto, but Dosu had specifically stated earlier that Sasuke himself was their main target. This may have seemed slightly strange at first, after all, you'd have to perform a fairly complex surgery to excavate a sharingan without irreversibly damaging the eye. Then again, he'd literally just seen Orochimaru discard his face like it was nothing, so a makeshift eye surgery may not have been that far out of the question. He looked backwards, attempting to try and get a read on their chaser.

There was nothing behind them except the trees.

He looked forwards. Naruto, who was at the head of the pack, noticed his friend's movement and called back.

_"Sasuke, where is he?!"_

_**FWOOSH!**_

Out of nowhere, Orochimaru fused out of the tree in front of Naruto. The pattern of the bark bleed into his to his body, trailing up his clothes as he further extended himself out of the trunk. Naruto's eyes widened, though they were quickly covered up by the grip of Orochimaru's hand. He gripped onto the boy's head, strong enough to completely stop his forward momentum before tossing him towards the ground like you would a piece of garbage. Sasuke and Sakura quickly refocused themselves. They jumped to opposing trees, Sasuke taking aim with his fire style. The flame surged forward, crackling embers only serving to illuminate the fiendishness of Orochimaru's eyes. He responded with a jutsu of his own, a spinning disc of wind circling around his hand like a shield. The fire jutsu dispersed as soon as it touched the breeze and began to split into four different threads. They wrapped around the windmill, thin orange veins of flame becoming entrenched within the grip of its vortex. Before Sasuke could move, it shot towards him, splintering into whips of flame and gust. They wrapped around his limbs, stinging his exposed skin before, with a sharp tug of his hand, Orochimaru tossed him down to the floor like he had Naruto.

This easy disposal shifted Orochimaru's smug smile to a more sadistically twisted one. He hadn't even need to unfuse his lower body from the tree. However, he had gotten so caught up in his own easily-satiated ego that he didn't even notice Sakura rebounding off the nearest tree. She leapt forward brandishing her kunai with gritted teeth. For a second, it looked as if she was about to successfully stab Orochimaru in the back of the head. That was, before Orochimaru snapped his body towards her at speeds that's sheer velocity would break the bones of any normal human. One moment, he had been ignorant of her presence and the next, he was fully prepared for her attack.

He raised a palm to block the kunai, seemingly willing to simply tank the stab wound as it were. The knife pierced through his hand, stopping just short of carving his eye. However, what had first seemed like a cause for victory quickly transferred to fear in Sakura's features. The blood staining her knife was not red, but a teal shade of green. Not only that, it fizzled and burnt, cracking and rotting the metal of the kunai. This same venom seemed to be coming from Orochimaru, as it leaked from his stab wound in the same way you'd expect normal blood to. He started pushing his palm forward, forcibly embedding his hand into the blade of the kunai with no regard for the damage it would cause,

Sakura's reflexes luckily kicked in quick enough to realize his ploy. She let go of the handle, feeling it beginning to degrade under the weight of the venom. Falling through the air, she stuck her legs out to try and get a grip on the tree that would let her control her descent. Orochimaru fused back into the tree trunk and raced downward before popping out and grabbing her knees. Sakura's freefalling stopped as quickly as it had started, as Orochimaru smashed her into the side of the tree trunk with enough force to bend her back over it like a lake-side bridge. Much like the others, she was quickly thrown to the forest floor.

"Fuck." She groaned, running a hand across her back as she stood up.

"Are you okay?" Sasuke, who had only just started to get his own bearings back, asked.

She nodded, shakily standing upright with a slight trip.

"Ah, he's slimy." Naruto groaned, trying to drain the residual grease he'd received from Orochimaru's grip out of his hair.

His eyes drifted down as he did so, finding a paper that had fallen from his pocket.

The flare seal!

He hurriedly reached down for it. If he could properly activate it, they'd be able to get some jonin down here, which would mean that-

**SLINKT!**

Naruto instinctively pulled back his fingertips as he felt something shoot forward. A steel blade stuck itself into the paper of the seal, disrupting it's fujinjutsu. Looking up, Naruto grimaced as he saw the source of the blade. The sword stretched out from Orochimaru's mouth; smooth, sharp metal having taken the place of his tongue. It retracted back, taking the paper with it as its properties shifted from steel to the skin of his freakishly long organ. It was like a measuring tape that had been pulled to its limit and was now retracting back. As it returned to his mouth, Orochimaru snatched the sealing tag from its perch, comically careful with its removal as to avoid a papercut.

"Damn it." Sasuke growled with gritted teeth.

He had clearly been thinking of a similar use for the explosive tag.

The snake sannin marched in front of them, a cocky stride presents with his steps. There was not a hint of even the slightest edge of defensiveness in his posture. He was completely calm, a stark contrast to the all obviously on-edge genin.

"Ah, it's nice to be able to move like that again." He snickered, popping his shoulders backward. "Wearing a face just gets so stuffy."

Naruto growled, thrusting his hand out forwards in an attempt to take a hardline stance.

"Okay listen Orochimarrow- "

The man in question snorted.

"-what the hell do you want with us anyway? What big treasure have we got that's so important to you?" He continued.

Orochimaru continued to giggle to himself, only just being able to quench the laughter as he responded.

"I suppose I could tell you, but it wouldn't be very fun would it? I've been planning stuck planning for…gosh, I don't even know how many years now. To waste it on your loose lips would be a very irrational decision."

"Huh?! I do not have loose lips!" Naruto shouted back, for some reason deciding to pick a schoolyard fight with a face-stealing freakshow.

In the meanwhile, Sakura leaned over to Sasuke, whispering in his ear.

"Who is this guy?"

"We don't really know. He used to be a high-ranking Konoha ninja I think, but he presumably left the village. I'm pretty sure he had some kind of relationship with Ookami." Sasuke whispered back.

The pair quickly returned their gaze to Orochimaru and Naruto, though their minds were more focused on escape routes than the childish squabble that Orochimaru had strangely decided to indulge in.

"What the hell do you know anyway?" Naruto barked.

"I know plenty Mr. Uzumaki. I was a student of the third after all…"

There was a flicker of intention in his eye, crevasses slanting further in hopes that Naruto would take the bait.

"Bullshit."

"A pathetic denial of reality if there ever was one." Orochimaru spat back.

Naruto hesitated, wondering whether he should further engage with the man. This man was pretty obviously not at trustworthy source on anything, but in that book Sasuke had showed him, he'd had a special title and everything. He'd seemed incredibly strong from the small amount of ability he'd been able to show off, so maybe it wasn't that farfetched. And hey, if it turned out he was lying about being Hiruzen's student, Naruto could just discard his answers.

In other words, he took the bait.

"Alright then, what do you know about Yugito Nii?" He asked, recalling one of the bigger mysteries that had arisen from his and Sasuke's investigation.

Orochimaru laughed slightly, finding the question in and of itself amusing.

"Hiruzen valiantly took her in as an immigrant when she was an impressionable young jinchuriki. Of course, in reality she was political capital to further consolidate Konohas global power. Because of this, her life didn't really matter and he had her killed as soon as the Mist put the pressure on, despite the fact that he had treated her like family for as long as she'd lived in the village. Now, does that remind you of anyone?" Orochimaru asked with a twinkle in his eye.

"Naruto, we've got to move." Sasuke tried to cut the conversation off but his words only ran into the back of Naruto's head, not his brain.

The Uzumaki looked at the man in front of him with shock before grimacing and turning sideways.

"Now I know you're talking bullshit." He spat.

His voice was uncertain and his posture ridged. Orochimaru smelt blood in the water.

"You seem eager to dismiss it."

"Damn right I am, no way Old Man Third would do something like that!" Naruto shouted, his put-on solemnness completely wilting away in favor of his true anger.

Orochimaru snorted yet again, clear humor in his eyes. It actually took him a few seconds to completely compose himself as his laugh overpowered his initial attempts at words.

"God, you really believe that don't you? It would seem idealistic delusion runs in the blood line then, wouldn't it?"

There was a small silence before Naruto spoke once more. His tone was lower than Sakura and Sasuke had ever heard it before.

"The fuck did you say?"

His body was tense, indicating that he was going to charge forward at Orochimaru any second. Sasuke couldn't let this happen. Naruto stood no chance and would be disposed of immediately, which meant Sakura and Sasuke would be thrust into the position of either leaving him in Orochimaru's clutches or endangering themselves further by attempting to lug him along with them. Sasuke though fast, leaping forward and shooting a massive fireball jutsu at Orochimaru.

"Quick, let's go!" He yelled at Naruto.

Luckily, the obscuring of his aggressor from sight seemed to have snapped Naruto back to reality. He nodded to Sasuke, quickly joining his teammates as they vaulted up to the tree tops. They had only just made it past Orochimaru's original standing position when the smoke and ash of the fireball faded, and revealed a towering stone wall in its place. Despite the three's attempts to flee, Orochimaru did not look the slightest bit concerned, gaze locking with Sasuke as he casually scanned their path of movement. The Uchiha's eyes widened before he quickly redirected his attention back to the other two.

"Split up, I think he only wants me!" He screamed, bark cracking under their feet while they leapt from tree to tree.

Instead of following his orders though, the two turned back with concerned expressions.

"No way Sasuke! That dudes crazy!" Naruto screamed back, barely even focusing on the trees he was jumping from.

"Just do it."

A rustle from the leafy crowns indicated that there was no time to even follow the instruction. Orochimaru burst down from the treetops, tongue whipping through the air like a stretch of rope. It was just as long as one too.

"He's already ahead of us?!" Sakura explained, finally beginning to grasp the **towering** speed gap between the two.

The tongue shot forward, wrapping around Sasuke's ankle. It twitched like a muscle, beginning to retract back as the man lurched over on all fours on the side of the tree. Sasuke yelled out in surprise, back scraping over rough wood while drops of bile and saliva dripped from the appendage. The initial surprise wore off quickly though and Sakura swiftly halted its retraction by throwing a kunai knife into it like it was a dart board. With this, Orochimaru's tongue became stapled into the wood. There was no observable reaction from him aside from a slight sigh of annoyance, which was followed by him dropping Sasuke and retracting it upwards from the kunai with the same amount of concern. The texture of his tongue tore under the kunai blade, but somehow, this was not a pressing matter to him. Venomous green blood leaked in the wake of his attempted kidnapping and sizzled against the brittle bark of the tree. Sasuke groaned, gently resuming his chakra control on the tree though this was far from comfortable considering Orochimaru was less than a meter in front of him.

"_Shadow clone jutsu!_" Naruto's voice boomed out across the forest, a mob of about a dozen shadow clones leaping onto the same tree.

They quickly grabbed Sasuke and tossed him into the original Naruto's grasp. The two, along with Sakura, leapt off into the abyss of the woods while the clones began to circle around the tree. The first two ran forward, spiraling around the circumference of the tree in opposite directions.

_**SMASH!**_

As soon as they reached Orochimaru, he stuck both his arms out wide enough to catch them both in his grip and quickly slammed them down against the side (or, due to the gravity-defying chakra-walking, his floor) of the tree with enough force to dispel them immediately. This turned out to be no more than a distraction, as another clone leapt forwards with a sharp flying kick attack. In response, Orochimaru leant back so far against the tree that every law of physics should've dictated that his spine shatter into a million pieces but yet it didn't. All it meant was that the clones kick sailed over his face, the most it did in damage being a small brush of the very tip of his nose.

"Huh?" It exclaimed, right before Orochimaru's claw-like fingernails embedded themselves in the back of its neck.

He turned back to the still existing mob of Naruto's that was squirming up the tree like termites to an anthill. He made a small tsk sound before slamming his hand into the tree trunk. Chunks of bark fell down to the floor, before Orochimaru knocked on the wood with surprisingly grace.

_Hm. Nicely hollow. _

His hands quickly wove into signs, expression uncaring for the charging mob of Naruto's before he placed his palm onto the flat, unearthed wood.

"Earth release: resonating spikes." He said calmly.

Before the clones could even move, the mass of earth chakra he'd just pumped into the internals of the tree trunk began to expand out into a mess of sharp wooden spikes that easily skewered the Naruto clones. A mass of smoke dissipated from the area, marking each one of the copies as dead. Orochimaru looked onwards, watching as the last flushes of Naruto, Sasuke and Sakura's forms drained from the horizonal mess of branches before he calmly took a breath in. It had been fun to mess with the Uzumaki boy, but this was beginning to bore him. It was time to finish up.

* * *

There was no looking back now. Team 7 bounced through the confines of the lush forest, harsh pants and weary limbs not doing anything to slow down their desperate dash. Their sense of direction had been totally annihilated by this development, the constant switching of routes meaning that they only barely had an idea of what way they were even moving. This didn't matter as much as you'd think because left and right were no longer important to them. The only imperative was to _run_. Orochimaru had clearly been toying around with them, and even then, he was undoubtedly _leagues _above even what they'd observed Kakashi and Zabuza fighting at. The thought of him sent a shiver down the trio's spine, so they tried to centralize their minds on the escape instead of what exactly they were escaping.

After what felt like an hour of continuous fleeing, they started to slow down, feet resting on the moss covered top of a branch. Their bodies ached; legs worn from the unceasing sprint they'd just been a victim of. Even with their super-human characteristics, the human body just wasn't cut out to run full-speed at the length they had been doing it for, _especially _with no breaks. It was only fair that they took one now. Naruto was the first to communicate in something other than puffs and pants, looking over at Sakura.

"Do you think we lost him?" He asked.

There was suddenly a presence behind him.

"Oh yes, I think you definitely did." Orochimaru laughed.

The three immediately whipped around to face him but it was too late. The crackles of a fireball jutsu flickered from Sasuke's gums, but they were quickly silenced as Orochimaru unphased from the tree and slapped a hand over the boy's mouth. A hyper-focused blast of wind forcibly crammed itself into the opening, sending sparks searing into the back of his throat and a thick smoke leaking from his now-coughing mouth.

"Bastard!" Naruto screamed, leaping forward with a punch primed and ready.

Orochimaru utilized his grip on the other boy's head, tossing Sasuke towards the others like he was literally nothing before setting his sights on Naruto. Naruto didn't even see him move. One second, he was still holding Sasuke, the other, he'd already knocked Naruto out with a single punch. The boys limp form slammed to the ground, Orochimaru standing over him as a way to deter Sakura and Sasuke from getting any closer.

"Well, compliments are in order. You three _are_ surprisingly quick. Like a pack of helpless little bunnies, but _quick _helpless little bunnies." He smiled, bubbly tone of voice completely clashing with the sadistic gleam in his eyes.

His posture was overly-animated in an atrocity of anatomic-contortion that really shouldn't have been possible. It was like he was the lead in an overly-artsy theatre performance that required 110% of effort in its performances. Sakura wasn't scared by this though, gripping a small tag of paper she had in her hand.

_**Fwoooo…**_

A small rusting rumbled from below Orochimaru before countless threads of ultra-fine razor wire erupted around him. They cut into his limb, ensnaring him in a barbed-tip cocoon of wires and metal. This was courtesy of a wire-trap that Sakura had laid as soon as they touched down on the branch. She rushed forward, grabbing the unconscious Naruto and stowing him on her back before she and Sasuke prepared to flee.

"C'mon let's go." Sasuke groaned, throat still sore from the fire being redirected into his mouth.

They were about to follow the directive before the unmistakable sound of Orochimaru's giggle came bouncing into their ears.

"_Hehehe._ Oh my god. You actually thought I didn't notice, didn't you?" He mocked, before his body decayed into a _massive bundle of snakes. _

Sasuke and Sakura quickly leapt forward, attempting to vault away as the real Orochimaru emerged into view. The leaping girl looked back, harshly throwing shuriken and kunai to menial effect. After all, Naruto was heavy. Balancing him on her back completely destroyed any chance of her aim being true at this stage. Even if she'd been functioning at one-hundred percent though, it was useless. Orochimaru effortlessly dodged around the weapons, not even caring if he got hit but finding it so easy to avoid that he weaved around them anyway. From the way he was moving, it was clear that this was the ninja-equivalent of an older kid purposely holding back on his younger sibling during a race, but even then, he was moving nearly too fast for her eye to perceive.

The feeling of helplessness was one distinctly familiar to Sakura, but even in the custody of her mother, she'd never felt quite this vulnerable before. She and Sasuke were running at speeds beyond their limits, limbs aching all the way. Orochimaru wasn't even trying and he was effortlessly outclassing them. In that regard, it was even more brutal than if he had killed them outright because at least that way, the tension of knowing he _might _snap would've faded by now. Instead, he left them alive with the knowledge that any second, he could off them for good. Sakura had to grit her teeth to try and avoid completely breaking down right then and there.

As she rushed through the trunks of the trees, she spotted something from the corner of her eye. Sasuke was balancing on a trunk, waiting for her to pass. When she did, he leapt out from behind the hiding place and planted his feet firmly on the branch between her and the somewhat-distant Orochimaru. She would've fearfully asked what he was doing but her instincts kept pushing her forward.

Sasuke's hands stretched into elaborate hand-seals, moving so fast his arms were essentially a blur. He was betting it all on this. If it failed, he'd probably start suffering from Chakra fatigue immediately. This was his ultimate jutsu, one of the ones he'd been specifically practicing during the training for the chunin exams. He had little control over it but considering the current situation, that mattered not.

"Fire release: _**Flame Tide**_!" He screamed, before breathing forward a roaring wave of flame at Orochimaru.

It was massive, the illumination of its embers making it almost look like molten lava instead of pure flame. It sailed through the air like the tides of a stormy sea. The woods and grass beneath it sizzled and burnt under the overwhelming heat, lush greens scorching into dark blacks and bland greys. Now all he needed was for the same to happen to Orochimaru.

But it didn't.

No, instead, Orochimaru looked at this titanic attack with a glint in his eye that may have been brighter than the flames themselves. Despite the fact an attack capable of completely eradicating him was sailing forward at this very moment, Orochimaru looked nothing short of completely joyful.

"Sasuke Uchiha, _I am very impressed!_" He laughed, biting into the tip of his index finger with sharp serpentine fangs.

Blood trickled down from the bite mark. This was real blood, not the fake venomous ooze that had permeated his body prior. However, this" real" blood soon dyed itself jet black, turning into ink as it trickled down the length of his finger. Orochimaru twisted his digit around in a circular motion, leaving a gravity-defying circle of bloody ink floating in the air before he bounded forward. The circle dispersed into smoke and a hulking snake creature flew forward, nearly bigger and certainly longer than Orochimaru himself. It had scales were so thick that they resembled the plates of steel armor that were accustomed to wartime Iwa. With that, Sasuke realized his strategy.

The snake plunged forward, swallowing Orochimaru whole just before he was incinerated by the flame tide. Its thick, shiny scales bulldozed through the heat with little difficulty. Even when a plate of armor peeled off from over-exposure to the fire, a new one quickly regenerated in the same spot and Sasuke could do nothing about it. All he could do was try and crank the heat up even further as the long stretch of snake spiraled through the gulf of fire. Just as it reached the end of the jutsu, it opened it's mouth up and spat Orochimaru forward like a bullet.

Sasuke didn't even have a chance to cancel the jutsu before he was pinned down flat against the base of the tree branch. He flailed his limbs, trying desperately to get free but Orochimaru's grip was iron tight. The older man quickly picked up and slammed him down against the bark, halting his protests for the moment.

"Please calm down Sasuke, it'll hurt less if you sit still."

That was it, he was going to rip the Sharingan out of his head. The man's cadence told him nothing else and he didn't doubt he could do it either. Sasuke summoned the last of his strength to try and slip free, urgently pushing his body up with every bit of accumulated adrenaline he'd built up over his fights with the sound ninja.

"Oh, for heaven sake." Orochimaru groaned, in what was probably his first display of emotion of the night that wasn't sadistic glee. "Genin are so disrespectful these days..."

He reached into his pocket and brought forth a small vial of translucent violet gel. He popped the cap off, dipping the tip of his un-bit index finger in before bringing it to Sasuke's mouth.

"Open."

"_Fuck you_." Sasuke mumbled through the grip of his palm.

_**CRACK!**_

Orochimaru punched him in the face so hard Sasuke thought his skull had split open. His vision that had previously leaked in through the slits of Orochimaru's fingertips was now completely lost, the blow destabilizing it into a fuzzy blurred mess of nothing.

"Please try and listen better in the future." Orochimaru hummed, frustrated at receiving even the most minor bit of push back.

He stretched Sasuke's mouth open, dabbing a few liquid-soaked finer tips onto the boy's tongue before dropping his hold. Sasuke tried not to taste it but even the most basic movement of his lips sent droplets of the liquid both down his throat and onto the top of his mouth. It tasted bitter and unwashed, a distinct dirt flavor bleeding through its intense citrus qualities. Sasuke felt his body involuntarily start to tense up. It was like his muscles were contracting, sharp and swiftly enough to get a small grunt out of him. He was completely paralyzed.

"Now, let's try this again."

Sasuke used his last bit of autonomy to close his eyes. However, this in no way obstructed Orochimaru from his main goal. Sasuke suddenly felt the snake sannins hot breath whispering against his shoulder. This was swiftly followed by Orochimaru _sinking his teeth into the area_ with all the sharpness you'd expect from a snake-fanged ninja.

"_**Aaaaah!**_" Sasuke screamed.

He could handle the bite if it was just breaking the skin but this felt like it was going _deeper._ His chakra nodes were on fire, the acid of Orochimaru's teeth scorching them down to the point where Sasuke could no long anything on the left side of his body. With a sharp tilt of his head, Orochimaru _ripped_ the very manifestation of Sasuke's chakra out from his shoulder. This energy took the form of a long, rope-like blob that dripped from Orochimaru's mouth. Meanwhile, tears welled up in Sasuke's eyes, the left side of his body feeling like it was going to split in two if the chakra link moved any further.

"_Sealing Jutsu: curse mark!" _Orochimaru grunted through his clenched fangs.

Suddenly, the long thread of chakra turned into a stretch of dry black ink. It proceeded to _burrow_ back into Sasuke's shoulder which admittedly alleviated some of the pain he was feeling. In the wake of the chakra drain was a small black mark, it's ink dry and sealed on so perfectly that it was like Sasuke had had it since the day he was born. Sasuke was in no hurry to recover though. His nerves still stung whenever he even tried to use the left side of his body, which, coupled with the liquid paralysis, meant he was not going to be walking right for a _while_.

"_**Sasuke!**_" Sakura cried.

Her concern finally grew enough to overrule her instincts as she stowed Naruto onto a nearby branch and began to leap forward from tree to tree with her kunai at the ready. Orochimaru looked at her, seemingly annoyed that she was even making an _attempt _to save her friend.

"I have no idea why you continue to insert yourself into my fun Ms. Haruno but let me make this clear- "

Orochimaru tossed a few hand-seals together haphazardly, pointed his palms out at the approaching Sakura and _proceeded to blow an entire stretch of trees down with just the power of his wind jutsu. _

"You are a non-factor."

"_Ah_!" Sakura screamed, losing her footing completely as an entire section of forest came crashing down to the ground.

She should have really counted herself lucky she'd only hurt her back and hadn't gotten crushed by the resulting avalanche of tree trunks. Naruto's unconscious body fell to the ground as well, harshly slamming onto the floor without even the slightest sign of waking up. Suddenly, the tightly contained woods began to feel very open. This was probably because all the wood that the woods were composed of had been blown down to the ground. Years of accumulative fauna destroyed just like that.

"Sakura! _Naruto!_" Sasuke screamed.

Seconds later he caught Orochimaru staring at him with a curious look.

"You know what, I may have spoken too soon. She's not a non-factor at all." He mused.

Sasuke glared at him, the distorting pain of the curse mark finally starting to wear off to the point where he could at least make out what was in front of him.

"Tell me Sasuke, have you heard about the theory of the Magenkyo Sharingan? It's supposed to be triggered by excessive grief is it not?"

Sasuke's heart stopped.

He knew immediately what Orochimaru was implying.

"Don't." He grumbled, barely able to use the left side of his mouth to talk.

It was meant to sound intimidating but his voice was so hoarse it more closely resembled a plea for mercy.

Orochimaru looked down at him with eyes that were so cruel and heartless, no sane human would be able to consider them human. He saw Sasuke not as a human with equal amounts of emotion, but as a test subject. A crash-test dummy that's only use was to test the limits of traumatic abuse, this torrent of manipulative deceit only halting when something gave.

"This _will _be an interesting experiment. Drat, I wish I had my log book, this should really be written down under proper conditions…" Orochimaru chattered, tone completely absent of the fact that the experiment he was pondering on would entirely consist of him murdering a teenager in cold blood.

"_Please don't_." Sasuke pleaded, begging falling on deaf ears.

Orochimaru was now enraptured in his own world, with there being little to no hope of anyone but himself pulling him out of it.

"Hm, now the question is what one would hurt more. Ms. Haruno is definitely more _helpless_, and I imagine there's the potential attraction factor, but I also imagine your kinship with Mr. Uzumaki is significantly larger. It's almost as if these two are filling a substantial hole in your heart, so dispatching of either of them would splinter it significantly. Now I just have to decide which would get you more riled up, so maybe just offing them both would- "

A light bulb went off in Orochimaru's head. He turned to Sasuke with a _genuine_ smile, utterly pleased that he'd managed to figure it out!

"That's it! How about _you _decide for me Sasuke?!"

Sasuke could not speak.

He just shook his head, welled-up tears of pain finally beginning to roll down his eyes.

"No, see, here's the genius of it. You must decide because if you refuse, I will simply kill them both. Now, if you comply, one will be spared, but you will have also had a direct hand in killing the other. Which one of them will you choose?"

It was strange the way he spoke. So pleased and jubilant yet also hyper-aware that this was a decision that would mentally annihilate Sasuke for years to come. He couldn't move, his nerves were on fire and now he was being forced to choose which one of his friends would die.

"You seem a little bit quiet." Orochimaru commented, crouching down next to Sasuke's limp body with his legs crossed.

Sobs welled up in Sasuke's throat, cutting off every word that tried to come through to his mouth. He desperately wanted to lunge forward and tear into Orochimaru. He wanted to put the man through hell for even floating this conundrum his way. The mere act of even _suggesting it_ was far too grave a crime for him to get away and _Sasuke would show him_.

No, he wouldn't. He couldn't move a muscle.

"Kill _me_." He finally said, attempting to hold back any shakiness in his voice

Orochimaru sighed, before once again smiling a sharp, sadistic grin at Sasuke.

"Well I can't do that. I wouldn't want to risk ruining those pretty red eyes of yours." He snarled.

Now he wasn't even trying to hide his cruelty behind sweetness anymore, he was just plain mocking.

"Besides, Itachi would be **very** angry at me if I killed his little brother. I feel you're being a bit inconsiderate of _his_ feelings Sasuke."

Sasuke didn't know how Orochimaru knew all these things about him, and at this point, he didn't really care. The butterflies in his stomach had turned him into a human vivarium, flaps of their wings uprooting nausea and sickness that burrowed directly back into his brain. A few seconds past by but Sasuke tried to stretch them out to hours, hours were his friends weren't dead. Unfortunately, Orochimaru was not particularly patient.

"I am going to give you five seconds until I just kill them both." He said with monotone.

"No, _please_!" Sasuke cried, his tears and shattered voice not even having the slightest bit of effect on Orochimaru.

"**Five…**"

"_Stop!" _ Sasuke screamed.

"Four…."

_Blink_.

_Blink._

* * *

_**Blink**__. _

Naruto felt the soaking wet ground of his mindscape underneath him. Time was currently frozen and he could barely move.

"What's going on?" He muttered to himself.

"**That man will kill your friends in four seconds. If you chose to awaken now you will be easily disposed of as quickly as he did the last time. Your only choice is to call upon my power." **

Naruto blinked a few times, not even facing Kurama. He just let what he'd just heard wash over him, like the tides that rippled underneath.

"How do I know you're not bullshitting?" He said back, still not bothering to sit up.

"**Is that a risk you're willing to take?**"

Silence entered the room. What felt like a half an hour to Naruto here was only half a second in real time, so he had a while to just sit there like a sponge.

"…No."

* * *

"Three…" Orochimaru counted down.

_**BOOM!**_

An explosion of red drew both his and Sasuke's sights to the front of the forest, where, to both of their surprises, Naruto had stood up. But he hadn't really stood up as much as he had _**stood up**__. _Streams of thick, pulsating red chakra wove around the boy. Sparks flew from his body, shooting off into the distance and simmering against the bark of the trees. The mass of his power was so potent that he had made even made a slight dent in the ground.

"Oh goodie, I was so hoping to see this. It's not every day that you see a jinchuriki- "

Orochimaru was at first jolly about Naruto's new transformation but he quickly silenced himself. Sasuke looked to the side, attempting to gauge what had caused the man to stop speaking and was utterly shocked by what he found. For the first time since they'd encountered him, Orochimaru's eyes were displaying something other than complete control over the situation. He was scared, at least a little bit.

_No, this can't be right. His link with the fox wasn't supposed to be good enough to even manifest it slightly…can it be?!_

Naruto's baby blues were now a dark shade of crimson, threads of red, kyubi chakra orbiting around his body in a fiery coating. However, Orochimaru's eyes were fixated on one thing alone. The chakra on his back had turned into what could only be described as a hard-light construct. It resembled a thin, tattered cape that barley even stretched over half of Naruto's spine, yet Orochimaru was looking at it like the boy had brought forth the whole Nine-Tails with him.

_The nine-tails ultimate ability, the crimson cloak?!_

Suddenly, he was taking this battle _very _seriously.


	32. Snake Vs Fox

Red chakra swarmed around Naruto, his nails sharpening into claws as he faced down Orochimaru. While the man in question was not as intimidated as one might expect when being faced with the demonic channeling of one of the most dangerous entities in the entire Shinobi world, his sadistically lax posture had tightened up significantly. Serpentine eyes glazed over Naruto's form, incredibly cautious of the tattered chakra cape that was fluttering off his back.

"**Hey, snake-man**…" Naruto growled.

His voice was no longer completely his own. Now, there was a deep echo of demonic proportions rippling through every word.

"**I think it's about time you left.**"

Orochimaru blinked.

There was suddenly a presence behind him.

_**FWOOSH!**_

Before he could even turn around, Naruto's claws stabbed into his back, pushing him down from the ledge and _slamming _him into the forest floor. Dust erupted from around the crash site, with the two quickly getting up to face the other. Naruto was no longer even bothering to stand up on two feet, favoring an animalistic four-legged approach instead. Orochimaru briefly looked scared, before becoming closer to deadpan. This was an impressive feat considering the devilish boy that stood before him.

"Mr. Uzumaki please, as much as I'd love to stay and analyze the attributes of a jinchuriki, I've already succeeded in what I was trying to do. This fight's pointless- "

"**Oh, it ain't pointless! I'm gonna cave your slimy-ass skull in and then you're gonna tell me **_**everything **_**you know." **Naruto growled back.

Sasuke blinked, observing the scene in front of him. Naruto had managed to not only engage, but also land a hit on Orochimaru. With motion returning to his body, he began to think that maybe the tides were turning in their favor. He stood up gently, preparing to…

"_Aaah!_"

With a quick seal from Orochimaru's hands, the mark on his shoulder turned from a gentle black to a blistering red. Stinging pain that was so hot it almost felt freezing rand down his body, digging as deep as his chakra nodes. This, combined with the pain that Orochimaru had already inflicted upon him during the course of their battle, proved far too much for Sasuke to take. He collapsed onto the branch, consciousness fading away as the curse mark pumped stinging sensations all the while.

"**You're really pushing your luck, you know that?**" Naruto snarled, readying his body to pounce.

Orochimaru looked back at him with a slight smirk.

"Funny, I could say the same for you."

_**BOOM!**_

Naruto leapt forward, looking like a blurred bullet due to his speed. He landed only inches away from Orochimaru before slashing at him with a chakra-enhanced swipe of his claws. Orochimaru easily slinked away from the oncoming attack, not suffering so much as a scratch to his clothing. Naruto leapt behind him, only to get immediately caught with a sharp kick by a predicting Orochimaru. He didn't budge an inch. Instead, he growled the pain away before leaping forwards and slashing at him. Both his attacks missed, but put him off balance enough that Naruto had a chance to grab the man by the neck and chuck him towards a far-away tree.

Orochimaru collided with the trunk hard enough to chop it down like he was a human axe. The jagged sounds of the dominoing forest-scape echoed behind him as he got to his feet. He grunted frustratedly, straightening his back out somewhat. He had no doubt he could beat Naruto in this form, hell, the boy hadn't even reached a manifested a single tail yet. However, between the crimson cloak and the transformation, Orochimaru imagined he'd most likely have to try a little bit to win this fight. This was a large departure from the battle's dynamic previously, where he was easily disposing of the three genin.

Naruto primally bounded across the forest at Orochimaru. He was seemingly content to brute-force his way to victory and judging by their previous interaction, it wasn't like this was a dumb assumption to make. He charged forward, only for his target to quickly body flicker away and begin leaping from tree to tree. Naruto followed him in hot pursuit though the pure energy of Kurama's chakra coat nearly tipped over every tree and jumped from. Orochimaru noticed this following and skillfully turned around midjump. He threw two sealing tags to the side, sticking them on two length-apart trees before collapsing his hands into signs.

"_Barrier art: chakra threshold!_" He cried.

A strip of blurry, purple energy apparated into Naruto's flight path before he had time to dodge. He attempted to charge through it, but as he did, its energy stretched out with him before he was shot back out with the same amount of force he'd tried to enter it with. He crashed onto the dirt, leaving a crater in his wake as he immediately recovered back onto his feet. Orochimaru's barrier didn't cover anything more than the immediate stretch through the air so he still had a way forward but whether he would be able to make it that far was another question entirely. He was still somewhat dazed from the crash, which Orochimaru took instant notice of.

_Now, he can't activate it_…

"Wind Release**: **Hurricane bullets!" He cried, spiraling shots of wind blasting forth from his fingertips.

Naruto's red eyes looked unsuitably worried as they turned to face the oncoming attack. The shots sailed through the air, fast enough that Naruto knew he wouldn't have a chance to block. That was until…

"_**Now Uzumaki. Use it now!" **_ Kumaras voice echoed through his skull.

The chakra cape that had been flickering off Naruto's back suddenly surged around him in a ball of blazing red energy. The bullets were blunted by this, _absorbing into the abyss of red_ before Naruto's scarlet aura suddenly became inhabited by streaks of wind chakra. He looked up at Orochimaru and growled, before _blasting _forward with veins of wind spiraling around his body.

_The crimson cloak! _Orochimaru cursed as Naruto surged forward.

_**CRACK!**_

His chakra output was too high for even the barrier threshold to handle. He easily shattered through it, sending figments of blurred purple fractals floating to the floor and fading away into nothing. Orochimaru's eye widened, but he wasn't able to get out of the way in time. Naruto rocketed into him, sending both spiraling to the ground. Before they could even hit however, Orochimaru felt himself being lifted by a grip on his feet before he was harshly slammed down against the floor. With an aching back, he returned to his feet to see Naruto charging towards him. His demonic red chakra coat had now taken on a dreamy white coloring. The "crimson" cloak flapped in the meanwhile, it's threads weaving with the howling blades of wind.

_**FWOOSH!**_

A slash from Naruto sent a pulse of wind chakra hurtling towards Orochimaru. There was enough force behind this strike that the older man was pushed up to his ankles in dirt as if it was the waves of an oncoming tide. He showed his fangs, attempting to leap forwards before yet another slash of wind put him flat on his back. By the time he came too, Naruto's aura had faded back to its usual red but now the sharps of his fingernails shone brightly in the nightlight. Orochimaru launched his tongue forward, shifting it into its sword form. If he could just hit and eye or something…

He couldn't. Try as it might, the sword found itself unable to pierce the thick mass of chakra. The wrap of red that had surrounded Naruto's eye in its claw form suddenly shifted and took hold of the sword. Orochimaru felt it clasp down against the steel with enough force that it may have been able to shatter it whole if he didn't act quickly. Luckily, the boy's weakness was clear. His right arm had been completely exposed thanks to Kurama shifting his aura from the arm to the front of the body, meaning Orochimaru finally had an open weak point. He stealthy reached into his pocket and retrieved a kunai, beady eyes slowly adjusting before he threw it forward with angle-perfect accuracy. The blade wedged itself into Naruto's palm, causing the boy to retract with a growl. The injury forced him to reallocate his nine-tails chakra back to his arm which mean that Orochimaru had a little bit to recover.

The key phrase here was "little bit" because despite the kunai hitting at an absolutely visceral depth, Naruto cleanly removed it from his hand and tossed it aside. His red chakra began to weave threads of itself into the wound, sealing it without leaving so much as a scar. Orochimaru wasn't worried about that however. His attention was purely fixated on the slightly fluttering cape that sat on Naruto's back.

He grimaced to himself. If he didn't act quickly, the fox's control would grow more and more rampant and the chakra-absorbing cloak would become consequently more powerful. At this point, he needed to either overwhelm it while it was in its early stages or simply wait for its massive chakra drain to render Naruto defenseless. Either way, he had no more options. He needed to put his all into this fight.

* * *

"Sasuke…_Sasuke_?" Sakura prodded at the unconscious boy.

It was no use; he was out for the count. A dreary wave of dread rolled over the girl as she unconsciously slumped over onto the tree stump. She didn't know what to do. Nothing Kakashi had taught her could be properly implemented into this situation, not even the basic survival tips. She couldn't assist in the fight going on around her, she'd just be a burden. It was for the best that she just waited it out because, from what she could see, Naruto was channeling the power of a tailed beast and his attacks had done more to surprise Orochimaru than actually hurt him in any way that mattered. If she was a sleazy club promoter taking bets for her next underground fight, she wouldn't even try to pull a fast one on people as it was obvious as this point that Orochimaru was easy money and that Naruto was a mid-tier distraction in the grand scheme of things.

Their flare seal was gone. Even if the fujinjutsu programing had somehow survived the point-blank stab, it was way too far back for her to try and retrieve it. If Sasuke could somehow wake up, he'd be able to use his fireball jutsu as a makeshift signal but she couldn't do that. She was just dead weight. She couldn't do _**anything. **_

_**Yeah, that's right. This is it. It sucks these two had to be stuck with someone as completely awful as you but- **_

She shot a glance at Sasuke's unconscious, pained body and Inner-Sakura's rambles were suddenly silenced for the moment. If she just sat here crying to herself, it really would be true. What she, no, _they_ needed right now was a plan, even if that plan was to tell teacher on Orochimaru. She was surrounded by mother nature's greatest resources, surely, she could do something…

Her hands quickly ruffled through her pockets and pouches. The search of their contents brought forth a couple of shuriken, a few kunai and some other tools that were equally useless to this situation, but one stuck out to her (quite literally). Sakura took out a few sticking seals that she'd only bought because they were incredibly cheap at the weapons shop. If only she'd known how instrumental they would become. Now she needed something that lit fires.

_Something that lit fires. _

_**Something that lit fires**_.

A quick rustle of the treetops brought forth a shower of fresh, immensely-flammable leaves. She bundled them up before sticking them onto the sticking seal in an activated heap. Now all she needed was a light. Her eye scoured the ground, eventually resting upon a few loose stones. Maybe those basic survival tips were going to come in handy after all. She walked down the trunk to the ground, grabbing as many as she could fit in her arms before placing the plentiful rocks down next to her discarded bundle of leaves. She crouched down, slamming the rocks together in prayer that these were the type that would light.

_**Clank.**_

_**Clank.**_

_**Clank. **_

_**FWOOSH!**_

With a harsh collision, Sakura managed to strike up a spark. Embers jittered into the bundle of leaves, setting them ablaze. Now she needed to get it airborne. Her hands weaved into signs as she accurately adjusted the flaming flare on the ground.

"_Earth release: pebble hail!_"

The soil began to swallow itself inward before _launching _upwards into the air with a burst of wind and pebbles. While this was really meant to serve as a mechanism to shoot rocks in the air, it was strong enough to send the fire package dispatching through the crevasses of the night sky like a shooting star. Now all she could do was hope that it got high enough…

* * *

"You really are tiresome Kurama." Orochimaru tisked, with a slight grin.

"**What happened to "_Mr Uzumaki_"?**" Naruto growled back.

He received a loud scoff in response.

"Please. It's incredibly clear from just your appearance that he's not the one steering the ship right now. Why even bother keeping up the charade?"

"**You're talking to Naruto and only **_**Naruto**_** right now." **

Orochimaru did not look convinced.

"You really are Minato Namikaze's son."

"_**Shut the fuck up**_**!" **Naruto growled, his intense emotion only making Orochimaru grin wider.

He quickly calmed himself down (easier said than done when you were possessed by a demon fox) and looked over at Orochimaru with a gaze that was an obvious attempt to hide his uncertainty and curiosity.

**Restrain yourself Uzumaki and strike him down now! He's too cunning, a battle of linguistics will only-**

Kurama's yells suddenly became unable to get through to Naruto, who had become so dead-set on proving he was in control that he had offered up any semblance of it he'd possessed.

"**Lying about Old Man Third, lying about the Fourth…quit your slimy shit-talking cause you don't know jack shit about anything!" **

The glint in Orochimaru's eyes indicated that he had already won the fight.

"Oh, but I know so _very many things _Naruto Uzumaki. Have you ever wondered exactly _how _the fox got inside you? I mean its puzzling, is it not? One second it's killing your father and the next it's in you."

Naruto froze. Despite the coat of chakra that had engulfed his eyes, the innocence he normally possessed had been put on display front and center.

"What do you know?" He asked, Kurama's influence fading from his voice.

While his chakra coat didn't completely shut down, it definitely withered back somewhat. It was almost like he was entranced, so much so that he didn't even notice as Orochimaru moved his hands behind his back.

"This will be very hard to digest for you Mr. Uzumaki, so stay with me here. On the night of your mother and father's death was the day of the Nine-Tails attack. That much you know already."

"And I know that my mum had the nine-tails _in her_!" Naruto added in an attempt to try and disprove the obvious truth that he was hanging onto ever word Orochimaru said.

"Indeed, but what you and nobody else aside from Hiruzen didn't realize about that night is that you, _Naruto Uzumaki,_ are- "

Orochimaru's hands shoot forward to revealed his completed seals.

"_A genuine fucking idiot!_" He shouted with glee. "Twin release: _**Dragon duet**_!"

The material behind Orochimaru erupted, the secretion in the air shifting into a water dragon jutsu whereas the wind ignited into a matching flame dragon jutsu. The two dragons shot towards Naruto, the boy barley having enough time to fully reactivate his kyubi cloak. He took a second to readjust to the renewed speed but soon managed to duck out of the way of the harmonic convergence of elemental chakra that came spiraling towards him. It was a tight fit though, the fire of the flame dragon grazing his cheek closely enough that it would have left a stinging mark had Kurama's cloak not been shielding him.

"_**B-bastard!**_" He shouted; voice once again heavy with demonic echo.

**Uzumaki, they're curving back around to your sides! Dodge you fool!**

_I've got the cloak though; I'll just absorb them and-_

_**Dodge**_**! **

Naruto didn't head the warning, instead readying the crimson cloak to absorb the chakra that was about to make impact. Then he heard a sharp rumbling underneath him.

"_Earth release: __**self-lacing prison!**_" Orochimaru screamed.

The muck under his feet solidified, shifting into a total-encasing of heavy bricks. They surrounded Naruto before he could move, encasing him completely. At the exact same time, the dragons collided _with themselves _instead of Naruto, a thick fog of steam quickly covering every square inch of Naruto's newfound prison. Suddenly, the air became very, very limitedin Naruto's lungs.

"**Fuck!**" He yelled to himself, lashing out.

His chakra-coated fist punched forward at the wall of the prison, successfully smashing it open for a second before a new brick immediately took his place. A few more blows at the wall yielded similar results, the prison being effectively impenetrable no matter his power. It was lucky he had the aura, because without it, it would be completely impossible to see in here. Well, maybe it wasn't so lucky. The lingering steam combined with the heat of Kurama's chakra as well as the warmth of his hoodie was quite literally boiling Naruto alive. The crimson cloak flickered on his back while his nausea rose, it's flapping getting stronger and stronger before…

_**SMASH!**_

It's hard chakra construct shattered like glass. This left the clutch of Kurama's own aura as the only real source of the beast's power he had left.

_Oh man. Fox, give me my crimson cloak back, I only got to use it once!_

**There's too much residual chakra in the steam; it would simply overload it again. Besides, with your chakra control, it's a miracle we manifested it even weakly the first time. It only gets more costly the more it breaks. **

_So, its whole thing is that it absorbs chakra, but its weakness is also chakra?_

**It's not designed to be wielded by jinchuriki. Humans lack the necessary chakra network to utilize it to its full potential. Combine that with the facts that this was its weakest possible version, that our link is ridiculously messy and that you are a **_**genuine**__**fucking idiot, **_**we are not in a favorable position right now. **

_Why are you even helping me right now anyway?_

There was a small pause from within the mind scape before Kurama spoke again.

**There are many evils in the world Uzumaki but that man is the purest distillation of it I've ever seen. I'd rather remain trapped inside you for an eternity than spend a minute under his control. **

Another silence started to blossom with Naruto being caught-off guard by Kurama's more subdued tone of voice. He quickly snapped out of it though, quickly scanning over the room to try and find a way out. The sting of the steam only got worse when he moved. Naruto flinched, hobbling over to the center of the prison and stomping his foot. His sandals made contact with a soft, but solidly rooted soil. It seemed Orochimaru hadn't thought to cover the floor. The aura of his chakra claws illuminated his path to escape.

_I've got an idea._

* * *

Orochimaru sat cross-legged, waiting for the time to come that Naruto would drop unconscious. He estimated it would be around forty more seconds. His chin was draped lazily in the palm of his hand with jittery fingers twitching excitedly. His initial goal had just been to dispose of Naruto with enough time for him to make his escape but it seemed as if he may have enough time to bag himself a tailed beast at this point. That was very exciting. However, this excitement only lasted a few seconds before he felt a rumbling underneath him. He looked down with confusion.

_**FWOOSH!**_

Naruto shot out the ground like a rocket ship, claws slashing over Orochimaru's face. Even with his foes hurtling speed, Orochimaru had managed to react in time to avoid anything more than a trio of shallow cuts on his skin.

_He dug through the ground. Clever, if it was his idea anyway. _The snake sannin thought, small stripes of blood tricking down the bridge of his nose.

Naruto landed with poise before swiftly charging towards Orochimaru. His red chakra coating flashed through the night, it's intensity only matched by the pounding of his hands and feet against the floor. He lunged forward with claws at the ready, only barely missing as Orochimaru ducked out of the way and caught him with a kick that sent him high into the air. This was quickly followed up with a spiraling wind jutsu that pushed him so high, his back hit the tops of the highest tree. Orochimaru quickly attempted to follow him by running up the tree. Naruto ricochet forward, meeting him halfway up the trunk. Before he could get his hands on him though, Orochimaru weaved seals at a pace even his Kurama enhanced reflexes couldn't track.

"Wind release: gust slice." He said, a block of wind chakra encasing his hand.

He slashed against the tree trunk, severing it from the base of the sapling whole before leaping backwards onto the ground. This left Naruto on a proverbial sinking ship. The tree had already begun to rotate at an unescapable angle by the time he realized he needed to escape. His eyes darted around in search of another vantage point but they were unable to move faster than Orochimaru's speedy palms.

"_Fire release: Fireball jutsu!_"

A sizzling ball of flame came shooting at the airborne tree, setting it aflame. For a few seconds, Orochimaru had thought his victory certain, the scorching mass of wood having engulfed Naruto and burnt him harshly. However, this certainly was quickly discarded when Naruto popped out from the tree. He was no longer just holding on though. He was now straight up holding it.

Using the power of the nine-tails, Naruto grabbed onto the flaming tree as if it were a club, sailing through the air with it before _**slamming **_it down against Orochimaru. His body bounced against the ground with a serve case of blunt force trauma immediately filling every square inch of his body. All in all, he was lucky Naruto's swing had not procured him into a fine red paste. A quick turn of his head reminded him that there was still plenty of time for that. Naruto had landed but his grip remained strong on the trunk. He swung it to the side, connecting against Orochimaru like he was a baseball to a bat. The force of the blow sent his limp body hurtling across the ground with uprooting dust blistering off of it.

As the initial sluggishness wore of, Orochimaru's rubbery form inhumanely tensed with the man quickly readjusting onto all fours to slow his momentum. His eyes shot forward to try and spot Naruto's next move but found only the discarded burning hunk of tree that had been used to clobber him. A sudden rush of wind to his back informed him that he had been looking in all the wrong places. Turing on his heel, Orochimaru found Naruto _inches away _from slicing him in two. There was nothing he could do. He attempted to try and weave hand signs but even with his ridiculous speed, Naruto had crossed the distance too quickly. The boy's claws pierced his body cleanly before they were _dragged _across his side in animalistic brutality. That was it. This would surely kill him.

Naruto had enough momentum behind himself that even when presented with the obstacle of slicing through Orochimaru, he landed a little bit backwards anyway. The boy looked down at his claws, hoping to find splatters of blood from the mortal wound he just inflicted. Instead he found shedded snake skin.

"_**Huh?**_"

Naruto looked back in time to see that last of "Orochimaru" dissolving into a bundle of snakes. That was about the only thing he reacted quickly enough to do. By the time he'd even comprehended the existence of the clone, a few of the snakes had managed to form a circle around his feet.

**Uzumaki, move!**

Was there ink on their scales?

"Barrier jutsu: _chakra amplifier_." The real Orochimaru cried from the treetops.

A purple prison of glass-like jutsu swirled around Naruto. Around half-a-second of confusion coursed through his brain before it was replaced with five years' worth of pain. It was like his soul was being sucked out of him, an electric pain jolting through his system. His vision blurred while his body immediately collapsed. His skin began to blur with the emergence of a deep crimson chakra coat. Palms gripped onto the side of his head trying to cut through the pain and hold himself steady but it had no effect. It felt like his very being was being torn apart on a spiritual level.

Orochimrau smiled to himself as he descended from the treetops before he quickly snapped into a more scientific attention. Though the snakes were breed to have large chakra pools they were still relatively small animals and couldn't keep the jutsu going for very long. He needed to act quickly.

He deeply dug a kunai _into his own palm_, hoping that he could initially mute the chakra points in there as well as form a chakra blockage depending on how quickly it healed. This allowed him to reach into the barrier without fear of his own hand being locked into the effects of the jutsu. Now came the second problem. Naruto was, as expected, writhing around in a mess of leaking red chakra and genuine physical pain. With this occurring, he couldn't get a decent grip on him. He motioned to the snakes, who shuffled in on themselves in order to tighten the barrier. The flails of Naruto's body were now contained into an area that was so small he could only barley move his limbs.

Orochimaru stuck his hand in his pockets, dabbing it in black ink before jutting the other out into the barrier, gripping Naruto's jacket and unzipping the front. He soon rolled up the boy's t-shirt as well to reveal the black-inked seal of Kurama. Now there were two options he could take here. On one hand, he could tighten the seal up, which would tighten Kurama's restrictions. This would cause Naruto's large chakra supplies to generally shrivel up, a move that would functionally declaw him and prove useful for the future _but_…well, that wasn't much fun. Tightening a seal was one of the most basic fujinjutsu techniques and he imagined it would take less than a day for even a low-tier fujinjutsu specialist to reverse his markings if Naruto were to complain about them. An odd number seal _could _intensify this, but once again, if Naruto were to complain, Hiruzen would most likely just call Jiraiya in to fix it.

What he wanted to do was _loosen_ the seal. It wasn't every day you got to experiment on a jinchuriki, and to tighten the seal would be so very boring. This would, theoretically give Kurama _more _real estate in Naruto's mind and force the Uzumaki youth to **consciously** resist him rather than the passive version he presumably partook in now. Yes, _yes_, that would be far more interesting, especially with the nine-tails'. He could waste no more time thinking of the specifics, the snake's chakra points would begin to burst soon. Orochimaru reached an inked hand out and took a closer look at Naruto's seal. This would be easier than he presumed. The seal had quite clearly been rushed and only the most basic of safeguards were written in.

There was something incredibly disturbing about Orochimaru's causality. Maybe it was because Naruto was screaming louder than he ever had in his life while the man nonchalantly finger-painted over his torso. A few quick streaks of his finger loosened the seal, which, due to the nature of the barrier, jutsu only amplified Naruto's pain (and consequently his screams) even _more_. The man eyed the mess of chakra that once again overtook the boy's form with interest before the boy's cries of pain finally became too much for him to ignore. He sealed his hands together, ending the barrier jutsu with a reluctant sigh.

Naruto's body collapsed onto the ground with a newfound stillness. His jagged, pained breaths indicated to Orochimaru that he was still very much alive but there was doubt as to how "alive" he was. Then he began to stand up.

"Hm?" Orochimaru exclaimed.

He had just had the collective sum of his chakra reserves reversed into a massive melting-pot of pain and ache. He should not have been standing up.

Naruto turned forward to face Orochimaru, snarling. All semblance of Kurama's chakra had faded from his body, but the ferocity remained. With shaky legs and clenched fists, he began to dash forward towards Orochimaru at the speed you would expect from some kind of sea creature that had been tossed onto land.

"_B-bastard!_" He cried, weakly motioning for a punch.

_**Fwoosh.**_

He soon collapsed by the man's feet. Orochimaru hadn't even had to move a muscle.

"_Ack!_" Naruto coughed, a pool of blood spilling out onto the dirt.

He quickly tried to push himself up but there was not even enough energy left in his body to properly move his back. He could only wobble his head slightly sideways in order to face Orochimaru, who was now looking at him with a demented twist of humor. Naruto tried to spit glare at him but any anger he had at the man was soon traded out for fear as he casually sat down against the Uzumaki's aching body.

"You are so much like him." Orochimaru mused.

He weaved a cold, dead finger through Naruto's hair, causing said boy to flinch.

"Not Minato but Hiruzen. That's not a compliment either, you paragons are made a dime a dozen these days." Orochimaru rambled. "Toy-soldiers built with cheap pieces and brittle foundations, made for the same exact purpose of helping your countries stagnation and imperialism. _Hokage _this, _Hokage _that."

As his beady eyes shifted to meet Naruto's, the boy began to shiver.

"You're all the same, so blinded by your own vanity, so brainwashed by egotistical dreams that you can't possibly hope to process the world in anyway except through the lens of your "humanity". Mr. Uzumaki, that lens is faulty, clouded and smeared with the egotism of "rule and law". That's why it's a perfect trap for people like you, ingrates who can't possibly see the bigger picture."

His gaze was distant, so much so that it was almost like he wasn't even talking to Naruto anymore. Instead, it was like he was reciting a speech he intended to use later on.

"There are things in this world that are so scary and so monolithic that even the concept of their existence would distort your worldview to the point that your sense of self would become unrecognizable because it has been _defined _by that same lens. The lens that calls me a "madman" and a criminal, when I am nothing of the sort. I am simply the only one capable of seeing the corruption that oozes from Konoha's veins." His voice was slight and focused, more so than it had been all night.

"We are all puppets to the wrath of nature, but I can see the strings while people like you and Hiruzen are content to stay blind if it means you get another performance out of it. You're more than willing to ravage the world with war and brutality if it fits into your moral code but morals are nothing more than a construct designed to try and keep the pigs fighting for who gets to go on the chopping block first. Morality is no more than a marker. A marker for prey who are content to tie their own strings and dance the night away, blissfully unaware of the monolithic forces that will render their moral codes no better than a foreign language that has been lost to the constraints of _their own humanity_."

Then there was nothing. Nothing but the sound of the nighttime wind and the crickets that came with it. A full minute passed before anyway words were spoken.

"You're a fucking psycho." Naruto whispered, the pain lingering in his voice meaning his tone couldn't get as angry as he wanted it too.

Orochimaru didn't react to the insult.

"Am I really?" Was all he said back.

The large stretch of silence resumed. Naruto was too freaked out to say anything more and Orochimaru looked as if he'd forgotten where he was. This is until a barrage of snakes came shooting out at the man. He immediately switched from distant and spacey to battle-ready in a split second, leaping away from his perch next to Naruto. The snakes quickly retracted backwards, sucking themselves into a tan jacket sleeve. The jacket sleeve of Anko Mitarashi.

In stark contrast to her usual snarky self-confidence, her face was now locked into a scowl.

"_You._" She said, eyes running over Orochimaru with more distain. "_Why are you here_?"

Orochimaru's face twisted into a smirk.

"Oh, please Anko, I just wanted to see how my favorite student was handling things. This is a big gig after all, I'm very proud."

Anko snarled, sealing with her hands before unloading a large fireball forward. Orochimaru quickly retreated to the branches of the treetops for safety. Her eyes briefly stayed fixated upon him before she turned to Naruto's body. She offered him a hand, which he shakily took. He relished the feeling of getting back onto ground even if his legs were incredibly wobbly.

"Can you stand?" She asked.

"Kinda." He nodded, the effects of Orochimaru's chakra dome beginning to ware off.

"_Naruto!_" Sakura's voice boomed through the forest as she emerged into view with Sasuke stowed to her back.

She quickly made her way over to the boy, noting the pained state he seemed to be in.

"Are you okay?"

"Yeah, he put me in this weird purple thingy and then the purple thingy went like _**bwoooo-**_ "

"You two." Anko cut him off. "Get as far away from here as you possibly can. I don't care if it fucks up your passing chances, just keep running, alright?"

Sakura and Naruto both nodded before taking off running at a slow speed. Sakura was weighed down by Sasuke and Naruto was physically battered to the point where he could barely accelerate. Anko watched them leave to make sure he didn't topple over before her sights became locked onto the treetops. She rushed up, leaping from trunk to trunk before landing flatly against the weight of a long branch. There, Orochimaru stood, arms thrust out in an embrace position. Anko reached into her pocket and brandished a kunai while walking towards him. This show of intimidation had little-to-no effect on Orochimaru.

"Come on Anko, are you still mad? It was…god, I don't even know how many years ago. You can't seriously be- "

_**Slash!**_

With a flick of her wrist, she cut through his throat.

Yet again, this clone began to dissipate into a bundle of snakes. Anko braced quickly as the real Orochimaru phased out of the tree with his fangs at the ready. She moved quickly, nailing him in the face with a predictive kick before he could even completely unfuse his lower body from the wood. The man's body limply hung from the branch, his reactions barely kicking in in time to allow him to dodge her oncoming stomp.

"For a dude whose life goal was to learn every jutsu, you really get caught up on the same tricks." She said as he scampered up to his feet.

"I feel you're selling me short. Do you really think I did everything I did for a few worthless techniques?" He asked.

"I think you did it all because you're a power-hungry cultist." She snarled back.

"That's no way to speak to your sensei." Orochimaru replied, leaping backward.

A long snake shot forward from Anko's jacket, gripping onto Orochimaru's neck and biting into it. An immediate sensation of pain shot through his should, skin immediately wrinkling before he managed to rip the animal off. He held a palm up to his cheek in an attempt to extract the substance that was now coursing through his cheek.

"His fangs contain the antidote to your venom, just so you know _why_ you're about to die." She smirked, clearly overjoyed to have landed a hit on her former teacher.

Orochimaru grimaced in legitimate pain for what must've been the first time that day. The stinging sensation in his cheek caused him to thrash around slightly, his tongue shooting out into a badly aimed sword slash which Anko easily deflected with the hilt of her kunai. She darted forward, quick to try and capitalize on this development. Sensing the fight immediately starting to fall out of his favor, Orochimaru cast a few hand signs before part of his cheek turned into what was essentially jello as flecks of his blood were shot out. Manky droplets of blood and god knows what else shot towards Anko, who raised a sleeve to try and block the hail of gunk.

Orochimaru swiftly followed through with a barrage of fireballs that hit each droplet with picture-perfect precision. The embers of the flames ignited the chemicals within them, turning each drop of blood into an explosion. Even if none of them came close to connecting with her, the sheer force of their detonation sent Anko flying back against the trunk of the tree harshly.

"_Ah!_" She cried before groaning in pain as she rose back up to her feet.

She had little time to waste however as Orochimaru transformed his arm into a snake and shot it forward. Her arms instinctively moved and she managed to catch it by the roof of its mouth. Its fangs glimmered in the moonlight, sharp and tipped with a green acid substance.

"_You really need to take these things to a dentist._" She grunted, struggling to keep the snake from closing its mouth and biting into her.

She clamped the snakes mouth shut and reached into her pocket, quickly grabbing a kunai and jamming it into the back of its neck. The snake cried out in pain, while Orochimaru forced it to shed its skin and free his arm. Anko quickly threw the snake off the branch afterwards. She rushed forward, kunai at the ready to strike Orochimaru down with. He easily dodged through her hasty slashes but this strategy could only work for so long. The more she pushed him, the closer he got to the edge of the branch. Eventually something had to give. That "thing" turned out to be Orochimaru's physical shape. As he reached the branches edge, the material of his body transformed into something that more closely resembled rubber than anything else. He slid backwards and coiled himself around the edge of the branch in a move that trapped Anko's feet within the chain of his apparently boneless being.

He twisted his elastic body to the side, in an attempt to toss her to ground. However, Anko thought quick and quickly gripped the foundation of the branch with chakra in her palm. Orochimaru's body partly uncurled itself off the branch but Anko didn't go with, forcing him to transform back to his physical body as to get a physical grip on his surroundings. Her kunai shot out at his face, almost too fast for him to react to. _Almost_. Before it could pierce through his eye like it intended to, he pushed himself up so that the kunai was now aiming towards his mouth. His teeth bit down against the metal, enough force behind the chomp to _shatter the kunai whole_.

With Anko stunned, he weaved hand seals together before casting a wind jutsu in his mouth. A gusty blast sent fragments of jagged metal firing forward like Shurikens. Anko dodged backward, only _just _managing to weave out of their path. The second she returned to her feet though, Orochimaru's hand came slugging into her face. While he'd never been particularly fond of taijutsu compared to ninjutsu, Orochimaru still hit hard, hard enough to nearly knock her out right there and then. Another punch yielded similar results. The throbbing in Anko's head asked her how many of these she could take and she replied by ducking Orochimaru's next attack and _slamming _the top of her head into his chin.

With the attack came a stumbling Orochimaru. She used this distraction to step backward and throw a shuriken outward. It whizzed past Orochimaru, who narrowly managed to dodge before he realized its true intentions far too late. The shuriken trap ejected each of its blades in their facing direction, one of which became lodged directly into his back.

"_Little bitch!_" He cursed, the sizzling pain in his back eroding the taunting formality his voice usually held.

He rapidly charged forward, only for Anko to catch him with an elbow to the face. With the blunt force of the attack still echoing through his skull, she tossed him forward. His face smashed against the trunk of the tree and left splinters of bark falling down. He didn't even have a chance to recover before Anko caught him by the grip of his long black hair and-

_**BAM!**_

Smashed his face against the tree once more.

_**BAM!**_

And then again.

_**BAM!**_

And then again…

_**BAM!**_

And _again_…

At this point, the thrill of bashing her teachers head against the tree had caused such a rush of dopamine in Anko that she couldn't help but continue. Orochimaru reached a hand out to his back, collecting residual blood on his finger before his face was yet again smashed against the wood. When she lifted him though, was when his hand begun. In the seconds before his face met the wood again, he scribbled a fujinjutsu seal upon the tree with his blood. By the time Anko noticed, she was already midway through plunging him down again and had no chance of stopping it. His face connected against the wood but the programming of the seal ensured no pain was felt. Instead, the momentum in his faceplant was thrown backwards at the two of them and sent them flying backward onto the ground.

It took a few seconds for the pain to register with Anko but her brain had already pushed her back to her feet. She had landed near the base of the tree and was now backed up against it in an attempt to cover her defenses. There was no sign of Orochimaru in sight, but she doubted he'd run away. He wouldn't do that without taunting her. The wood rested hard against her back as she brought her kunai up. Then that wood turned to scales.

By the time she had enough realization of her predicament to turn around, two snakes had phased out of the tree and wrapped around her with enough force to tie her to the tree. She raised her kunai up high to try and stab them only for a bleached white hand to emerge from the trunk and grab it. Orochimaru dismounted in front of her, turning quickly and _**stabbing **_the kunai into her shoulder. A harsh cry of pain escaped Anko's lips. Its agony was only intensified as she realized the unfortunate reality of how tight the snakes were. They had one arm under lock and key and the other had been phased into the tree by courtesy of Orochimaru.

Surprisingly, neither the blunt force trauma or the knife that was stabbed into her shoulder were quite as painful as the smug smirk that graced Orochimaru's features. When she was young, she'd found it warm and charming. Now she cursed herself for every thinking that way.

"What are you doing here, bastard?" She grunted; words partially jumbled due to the snakes constricting against her abdomen.

"_Ah, ah, ah._" Orochimaru chided with a flick of his boney fingers.

His eyes were once more glowing with sadistic glee.

"Honorificsplease."

The implication of what he meant was practically dripping of his tongue.

Anko stayed silent for nearly a full minute before she finally managed to suck up her pride.

"What are you doing here, _sensei?_" She replied, voice barley above a whisper.

"Sorry, not telling." He immediately shot her down, struggling to keep the laughter out of his voice.

The humiliation of being forced to call him sensei for nothing stung Anko far worse than the stab wound did. She grit her teeth as blood trickled into the threads of her coat, though this did little to hold in her anger.

"You're so _**fucked, **_you know that?!"

"I didn't actually, thanks for telling me." He replied, revealing in the power he had over her.

"I don't mean fucked in the head, which you are. I mean fucked in that you've just entered the borders of a sovereign country as a wanted criminal and proceeded to interfere with their current affairs!" She yelled; voice still strained by the snake restraints.

He looked at her with a raised eyebrow.

"Yes, and because the competency of Konoha's numerous different police forces is world-renowned, which is why I'm actually in jail _right now_."

She had no reply.

"Also, keep in mind, that the only way they will only know how I'm even here is if you go against your best interests and report me."

"And why wouldn't I?! Are you so really so narcissistic that you think I'm still attached enough to think I'd give everything up just to let you go free?"

The sadistic glimmer in his eyes got even brighter.

"The opposite actually. I imagine after years of rumor-spreading and stigma around you, you saw this coordination position as your chance to prove that you were more than just the student of the _dastardly _Orochimaru. However, would it not be strange that the one year his student is organizing the exams is the _one year_ he somehow manages to show up? If I were not Orochimaru, and instead someone who fears Orochimaru, I would find that incredibly peculiar."

The wind of the early morning began to blow harsher and harsher. Anko could not say anything back. Instead her eyes stayed fixed on Orochimaru, solid and unmoving in an attempt to not betray the deep dread that had crawled up her spine. Yet again, nearly a minute passed before anyone spoke.

"Anko, if you want to say something, please just say it instead of dawdling like a child." He reprimanded, clearly annoyed.

She refused to oblige.

Realizing this was a lost cause for the moment, Orochimaru turned around and began to walk away. He made it about five steps before a whisper blew through the air.

"Why are you like this?" Anko said.

Her voice was stone-cold and emotionless, which very clearly illuminated that she was feeling very emotional at this time.

"Define "this"" He said back with a curt turn of his head.

"You don't care about anyone or _anything_ except yourself. You're manipulative, you say anything you can to get what you want. You used to go on hour-long speeches about my "potential" and then you left me. I was never anything to you, was I?! Nothing more than a shogi piece, _your gold general that you were using as a drop ploy!" _

Currents of unresolved hurt wove into her tone. The desperation for even a little bit of closure was clear in her voice. Functionally, it was the same as a child fishing for praise from an adult. Her ramblings were fueled by nothing more than a need to be vindicated, and she wasn't even really attempting to hide it. All the names she'd been called, the years she'd wasted, the nightmares she'd had, she just needed _something…_

"Don't flatter yourself. You were a pawn at best." He said back.

He quietly made his way into the depths of the woods a few seconds after.

Even in the minutes after the snake constraints shriveled away, Anko could not move a muscle.


	33. Forest Clearings

"Hey…_Hey!_"

All Sasuke could see was darkness. It was fixed and immovable as well as vast and far reaching. He felt like he was locked into an eternal hell of echoed sound and blurred vision, the cusp of awakening being dangled just in front of his face yet unable to be properly grasped. The voice currently speaking sounded so far away, yet also right in front of him. Even with cognitive abilities weakened though, he could tell just from the mannerisms and tone that it was Naruto. This realization of the boy's presence kickstarted his mind again. A flood of memories rushed into his head, so sudden that they snapped him awake.

"_Ah!_" Sasuke yelled, shooting up so quickly he nearly slammed his face against the wooden wall

"Look! Sakura, I've got magic wake-up powers!" Naruto exclaimed with a smile.

Sasuke blinked awkwardly, eyes adjusting to his new found environment. It was incredibly small and constrained for one thing. He doubted he could even spread his legs out properly in here. The room itself seemed to be no more than a few large strips of bark stacked together in a tent formation. Sunlight illuminated through the opening as well as the naturally formed cracks in the wood. Before he could inspect anything further, Sakura pushed him down onto his back gently.

"Easy. Your shoulder's fucked." She bluntly explained.

It was at this moment Sasuke realized the ridiculous number of bandages that were tied around his arm.

"Oh right." He said, relaxing his posture before turning his gaze to Sakura and Naruto. "How long was I out?"

"Almost two days." Sakura said back.

"So, this would technically be day two of the exams now, right?" He said, revolving his shoulder back somewhat.

Day one started at 12:00am on the day they fought Orochimaru.

"Yep. Also, be careful with the bandages. I used up all the ones I had left on you. If you break it, we'll have to use vines and stuff like that."

Sasuke nodded, adjusting his shoulder in kind.

"Any sign of Orochimaru?"

Naruto's gaze darkened at the subject, causing him to peek out of the "tents" entrance.

"Nope. Coordinator lady started fighting him after he beat the shit out of me. He said something about already doing what he wanted to do anyway, so I think he pissed off."

Sasuke gently sat himself up, finally adjusting fully to his renewed autonomy.

"So, when should we head out?"

Sasuke crouched over the stream, grabbing a blob of water into his grip and letting it trickle down through his fingers. He then reached over to his shoulder and neatly peeled the bandages back. His fingertips scrubbed at the ink of the curse mark, attempting to scrub it clean to no avail. He only succeeded in making it sting a little bit worse.

_Why won't it clear?_

A few more seconds of scrubbing yielded similarly meager returns. Sasuke soon realized that this was an effort in futility and readjusted the bandages on his arm. He took off towards Sakura and Naruto, who stood in the deeper depths of the forest.

"Have we got the scrolls." He asked, as the three began to walk forward.

"Right here." Naruto replied, flicking the objects through his fingers playfully before accidentally dropping one the heaven one on the ground. "_Shit!_"

He quickly picked it up and passed it to Sasuke in an attempt to try and mute any jeering that would come his way. Luckily for him Sasuke's mood didn't seem at all playful at the minute, so he chose to ignore this. He looked over at Sakura with a questioning glance.

"Do you know where the center is?" He asked.

She shook her head softly.

"No way, my sense of direction is toast after we zig-zagged all over the place running from Orochimaru. I have no idea which way is which at this point."

As the three came to a particularly thick cluster of trees, Sasuke stopped on his heel and returned his attention to Naruto.

"Can you cast some shadow clones? Just to scope out the place."

"Sure."

Naruto pushed his hands into seals, chakra flowing through the tips of his fingers before it began to be shaped into-

_Blink._

A blink of his eyes transported him to an entirely different location, but one that he knew all too well. The floor was made of water, the image of his current line of sight distorted through its ripples and bleached by the monochrome glow. Something was different this time though. Something was _heavy_. Naruto turned his gaze to the side slightly only to find a _**giant**_ claw resting on the bridge of his shoulder. His blood ran colder than any ice jutsu ever could.

Slowly turning around, he found Kurama staring back at him with a smile plastered brightly on his sharp jagged teeth. The beasts coat was beginning to look less disheveled than it had been any other time Naruto had interacted with him. Now it was smooth and silky, even if some patches still remained somewhat messy. His newfound makeover would actually have made him a slight bit less scary if it wasn't for the fact that the gate that held him no longer looked like it was fit to do said job. The proud, powerful bars that had restrained him prior were now thin and brittle with gaps wide enough that Kurama could stick one of his titanic claws through. If it wasn't for the fact that he hadn't done it already, Naruto would have been sure that the beast was ready to smash the door down and eat him whole.

"_**Ah, ah, ah**__…_" He chided callously. "**Be careful not to use too much**."

_Blink._

"Naruto?" Sakura said, cadence implying that this was not the first time she'd said his name in the last few seconds.

She reached out and waved a hand over his face, which seemed to work in snapping him back to reality.

"Oh, right!" Naruto said, suddenly awakening from his strange trance.

He quickly summoned the two shadow clones with jitters running through his hands. They ran into the forest swiftly, while the genin trio stayed put. Both Sasuke and Sakura stared straight ahead, but their thoughts were locked upon Naruto. Normally, they would've played it off as him being absent-minded but after Orochimaru, it was important to keep things in perspective. Sakura had observed him acting strangely around camp as well, so this was definitely not an isolated incident. Maybe she should…

"_Holy shit, there's a dead guy in here_!" One of the clones exclaimed unexpectedly.

An immediate sense of dread was seen in the faces of the three ninjas. They rushed ahead, bodies brushing past trunks and sending bunches of leaves tumbling to the ground. As they moved forward, they found a body laying comatose in the middle of a small clearing. It was covered in grime and mud as well as stray strands of grass and fallen leaves. Contrary to its apparently deceased state though, the body soon began to groan.

"What the hell?" Naruto murmured, clones on edge

The body quickly rolled over, wearily holding up a kunai to his attackers.

"Who's there?"

His sight was completely obscured by the sludge that clung to his spectacles. It was at this moment that Naruto realized who the body belonged to.

"_Kabuto?_"

* * *

_**A day earlier… **_

The white-haired boy sat peacefully in the woodland. The hum of the crickets echoed through the air, rattling into his bones and setting him at ease. He gently sighed with his breath fading into the cold air of mid-morning.

_**FWOOSH!**_

Out of nowhere, a stretch of shadow came shooting at his feet. It moved quickly and ensured he didn't have time to dodge. The line of darkness stuck onto him like a parasite, completely overtaking his very soul. He could no longer move. A rustling in his trees directed his attention to the tops, where a plump boy in a green coat lunged forward into the air. Without warning, the boy's hands expanded outward to giant size before he _smashed _them together like symbols. The resulting blast of pressure sent Kabuto spiraling onto his back. By the time his vision snapped awake from its haze, he was surrounded by three genin. The exact same genin he'd stolen the scroll off of earlier.

"Give us the scroll back." Ino barked.

Kabuto attempted to vault up to his feet but found the clutch of the shadow could not be broken.

"Try all you like; that scroll is the key to achieving my dreams. I'll never give up on it!" He snarled back a fiery determination in his eye.

Literally all Ino had to do was look at him sternly and he immediately backed down, sweltering drive turning out to be all for show.

"Haha, just, like, t-totally kidding! I'll do you whatever you want!" He stammered.

"Choji, search his pockets." She ordered.

The plump ninja did as directed, hands rustling through Kabuto's pouches. His search failed to yield a scroll though. Instead, all he managed to excavate were a few sachets of gum and a pack of potato chips. This pleased Choji, but Choji only. Shikamaru and Ino's gazes shot towards Kabuto with scorn.

"What the fuck is this?" Ino practically yelled.

"I was hungry so I traded both of my scrolls to some smugglers." Kabuto explained back.

Shikamaru groaned, an exasperated hand peeling back the bottom of his eyelids.

"Why _**the fuck**_ would you do that?" Ino yelled.

"I was gonna' starve, it's not my fault!" He shot back defensively.

The two's bickering began to consolidate into one indecipherable blob of irritation. A sighing Shikamaru promptly released the jutsu, before circling back around the general vicinity of the woods. He found nothing suspicious and, as such, walked back to his group with an annoyed aura emanating from him.

"I don't think he's hiding them. Let's just leave and try to get another two, okay?" He said.

"Right." Choji nodded.

Ino had descended into hysterics far too quickly for any of his words to reach her, so Choji had to drag her along with them as the group departed for the forest depths. Their best chance to get the two scrolls was to make a move for the center and try to camp out any team making their way there.

"_What a drag._" Shikamaru murmured before the three completely departed from the area.

Kabuto waited on the ground for a few seconds. His eyes scanned the grounds inquisitively, a deeper-layer of analytical strategy hidden dep beneath their put-on dopiness. He slowly stood up and made his way to a nearby tree, before clasping his hands together into a seal. The genjutsu released, both scrolls fading back into existence. They'd been tightly strapped behind a tree trunk using a piece of vine, but none of the genin had thought to do even the most basics of genjutsu checks that would've exposed them to it. Afterall, it was only a basic genjutsu.

Kabuto laughed to himself, unstrapping both scrolls and putting them in his pocket.

Maybe he would actually pass this year…

* * *

"We passed. _We passed, p-p-p-p-ppassed._" Kiba sung as he and his teammates walked up the staircase of the center tower.

They'd easily managed to procure a second scroll and had headed directly towards the center building with the aid of Shino's bugs providing recon.

"Do not celebrate too early." The aforementioned bug boy chided, gaze staying steely fixated in front of him.

Kiba turned to him.

"_Yeah, yeah_. Hey, do you reckon they have water up there? I forgot to fill up my waterskin before and I'm mad thirsty right now."

Akamaru barked in agreement, upon which Hinata would've offered her own satchel up to him but quickly decided against it. Kiba had made a habit of sculling the whole skins worth of water no matter how thirsty he was. He also always offered Akamaru a drink of it as well, which meant Hinata would most likely be tasting essence of dog anytime she went for a drink of her own. As such, she decided against sharing her waterskin with Kiba. Shino often times let his bugs swim in his, so any offer from him would end up rejected anyway.

The three slowly opened the door as they reached the top floor. Its iron foundations expanded outward, revealing a large lobby-like room whose population did not match its size in the slightest. A startling majority of the seats were empty and the ones that were filled were done so with ninjas that Team 8 didn't recognize. Out of the 7 other ninja that were in the room, the only faces Hinata and Shino could remember were the three Sand ninjas from the earlier stages. They were sat along a long glass window, each one's pose being widely different. Temari was bored, Kankuro seemed to be enjoying the peace and quiet and Gaara was impatiently tapping his leg against the floor. What caught Kiba's eye though, was the small Styrofoam cup that Kankuro was sipping out of. With that, the Inuzuka boy casually strode over to him.

"Hey." He said to Kankuro.

A lazy glance was all he got as a response.

"You know where I can get a drink?" Kiba asked.

Kankuro motioned to the hallway.

"Down the hall. There's a little room on the left."

Kiba nodded and followed the instructions, but not before saying his thanks with a smile.

"Cool, thanks."

"No problem."

Hinata and Shino sat down in a row of seats a little to the left of the Suna siblings while Kiba took off down the hall. With that, the most talkative member of the whole room was eliminated and, consequently, so was the talk. Silence became interwoven within the walls of the large tower. The only real sounds one could hear at this point where the occasionally click of Hinata's fingers pressing together as well as the thumping of Gaara's foot against the floor. Over and over it slammed, the material of his sandals clunking monotonously against the floorboards. It was only a matter of time before someone began to find it annoying.

"Hey, can you stop tapping?" A boy asked him.

The boy had spiky brown hair, as well as a leafy green scarf and orange ninja gear. He sat by his team, which consisted of another boy and a girl with black-hair.

Gaara ignored them, and continued to tap his foot.

The boy's face became irritated. Maybe he just hadn't heard him…

"Hey, crows' eyes, _quit tapping your fucking foot_."

The tapping stopped, if only for a second. Gaara snapped his focus towards the other boy suddenly. His expression didn't change per say, but his dark-bagged eyes swirled with an annoyance that had already been building up with every tap of his foot.

"I do not wish to speak with you." He said.

He then resumed his foot tapping.

It was at this moment that the scarved-boy realized he'd had enough. He rose to his feet, puffing his chest out in argumentative fashion. Temari turned her body even further away from the scene. Kankuro's lips folded in over each other as he braced for what was to come. Gaara did not react.

"The fuck'd you say to me, digger-boy?" He growled, invoking a well-known derogatory term for people of Sunanese decent.

Hinata's jittering fingers began to intensify in their shakiness as the tension in the room surged forward. Shino watched alongside her, though his expression remained blank as always.

"I already said I do not wish to speak with you." Gaara replied. His foot had stopped tapping.

At this point, he was not even looking at the other boy but the other boy was sure as hell looking at him. The suna youth's nonchalance visibly stung him more than any physical attack could've done.

"Yeah? Well I've got words for you bud. Do you know who the fuck you're dealing with? "

An abrupt reply from Gaara came suddenly enough to startle him. He said only one word.

"No."

There was a brief second of silence, but the collective time taken by every party in the room was far more than that. The tension became thick and almost tangible in the air. Even someone like Hinata, who was a sheltered heiress, knew that this meant _shit was about to go down_ (and it did) The boy moved like a blur, reaching into his pocket and retrieving a kunai knife. With speed like he was displaying, it was no wonder he passed the Forest of Death so early. He slung the blade towards Gaara's head. It was so quick that those in attendance struggled to even perceive the movement.

And then it stopped. A hurtling freight train of speed and power, stopped, just like that. When the scene finally became properly lucid, the separating force became clear. An arm of sand trailed from Gaara's gourd, clutching down against the knife and halting any of its motion. Try as he might, the boy could not even hope of pushing back against the grainy defense that was guarding his target. Gaara had not even moved a muscle.

That was until he slowly turned his head around to face the boy. The sand quickly crawled forward from the blade and began to overtake his head. Despite the weak material it was apparently made of, the sand proved impossibly strong, enough so that it easily lifted the boy off of the ground and up into the air. The room was already dead silent aside from the two involved but a sudden hush still managed to layer itself on top of that silence. The boy's teammates looked on, beginning to tremble while none of the Suna nin seemed phased in the slightest. Shino didn't either, but he was always like that and the fact that he was even taking the time to look was a pretty big indication that he was at the very least somewhat put-off.

Hinata's instincts kicked into action, almost readying her to leap forth and save the poor boy but her brain quickly fought back. That one boy had moved at speeds she'd only read about in manga. Gaara had shown complete indifference to that same speed. She'd have no chance and, well, one dead ninja was better than two dead ninja, right? It was an awful thought and she quickly scolded herself for thinking it, but she didn't move. Her body wouldn't let her.

"_Siocho_. I offered you mercy..." Gaara said, while the boy desperately flung around within the grip of his sand.

In less than half-a-second, his facial features coiled up. What was once calm and casual turned primal and fierce.

"_**and you spat in my face!**_**" **He suddenly screamed, before forcefully motioning downwards.

The sand slammed the boy into the floor-boards with so much speed and force that, even with her limited anatomical knowledge, Hinata could immediately tell something important had either fractured or broken outright. In case this hadn't occurred, Gaara seemed to intent to make it happen anyway. The sand's grip remained strong as it flailed the boy around like a ragdoll. Over and over again, it would slam him to the floor, rupturing the wood of the boards with each successive hit. The boy's body had gone limp around the third smash but Gaara was already circling in on hit six at this moment.

Not a single one of the ninja's moved to stop this, not even the boy's teammates. In all fairness, this was not because they were fearful of Gaara (though they definitely were) but because the sand's slams were so fast that most of them had only just realized what was happening. His eye was wide, glee swirling around them in an amount that would only be comparable to the most animated of expressions. He continued to _dunk _the boy down to the floor, despite the fact that it was a real possibility his target wasn't even alive right now. There seemed to be no-sign of stopping his demented rampage before…

"_Gaara._" Temari's voice sternly rung out through the room.

His blood-lusted eyes suddenly dwindled back to his standard lithe gaze. He looked at Temari, an undercurrent of pleading in his posture. Pleading for her to let him _keep going_…

"Drop him." She ordered.

There was a small stretch of silence where it seemed Gaara was not going to listen. Everyone in the room braced for the possibility that not only would he continue the beating, but he'd attack his sister too. Then, finally, his stance tightened up to a more formal one and he waved a hand back.

_**SMASH!**_

The sand hurled the boy through the large window behind them with a nonchalance unbecoming of the murder it had just committed. It slithered itself back into Gaara's gourd, not a single grain being left on the ground. Gaara quickly turned his attention to the boy's teammates, who had begun shivering in fear at the sight of his rampage. His eyes remained fixed; his arms crossed and…

_**Taptaptaptap. **_

His foot started tapping once more.

The remaining boy took one last look at Gaara and then looked back to his female teammate. With shaky arms, he passed her the two heaven and earth scrolls from his pocket.

"Man, fuck being a ninja." He grumbled, walking away from the area.

The girl looked at the scrolls like he'd just passed her a disease. She threw them to the floor and began to follow in his stead.

"I'm with you."

Kankuro's previously uncaring eyes lit up at the discarded scrolls. His chubby form moved forward with speed unthought of for his appearance, as he quickly clutched onto the rolling parchments.

"_Score!_"

With a cheeky smile on his face, he held his drink up to Temari with a newfound spring in his step.

"Sis, hold my drink. I'm gonna go sell these to suckers around the entrance."

She did as he asked but had clear apprehension on her face while he walked away. Imagine how frustrating it would be if Kankuro was somehow barred from advancing to the next stage because some team had attacked him instead of paying whatever ridiculous fee he was going to charge for them.

"Don't go further than a few meters out, okay?"

He flashed a nonchalant thumbs up back towards her.

Meanwhile, Hinata looked over at the shattered window with pure, unending dread. Her thoughts spilled over each other, amalgamating into one sprawling blob of views to wove and inter-connected for her to possibly decipher.

_Should I go look?_

_**Yes, don't be a baby. **_

_But-_

_**Coward. **_

_Its dog eat dog, what do you want me to do? Get killed by him also?_

_**They're so right about you. **_

_Are not! _

_**Are so!**_

_Shut up!_

He feet were welded onto the floor with irrationality. Every bone in her body told her that she should at the very least go over to observe the body from the window, but her mind held her back. What if Gaara attacked her next? The possibility was small but…she didn't want to die and it wasn't like she wanted to see anyone dead either.

_**You're so selfish. **_

_It's scary, you can't blame me! _

The full-scale battle that was being mentally waged in her head only managed to audibly manifest into squeaks and small breaths. The presence of a movement to her back managed to somewhat snap her back to reality, as she found Shino striding forward to the scene of the attack. He didn't seem particularly on-edge, especially considering what he'd just witnessed, with his face blankly tucked in his collar and hands stuck in his jacket pockets. He paced up to the window, seemingly ignoring Gaara and Temari for the moment. A quick glance showed him that he would not be able to look out of the window without a boost. His heels and back arched up, giving him the height he needed to survey the scene. His gaze stayed completely transfixed upon the ground for a few seconds before he finally spoke.

"Damn. He died." He quietly said, before strolling back to his seat as if he had not just been looking at a dead body.

A sudden whistling hummed into the room, bouncing from wall to wall with pleasant cheer. Soon after its appearance, Kiba came sauntering on into the room, the notes blowing from his mouth. He held a small white cup that was presumably filled with water.

"Took me forever to get the faucet working. Aren't they meant to be like- "

His voice trailed off while his eyes widened. The floor boards were cracked, the window was shattered and a pool of blood seeped through the floor.

"…Man, what the fuck?!"

* * *

The loud sound of Choji snoring blended into the soundscape of the dark night. Ino and Shikamaru's heavy eyes weighed down harshly on their minds, each genin being a pleasant sound away from drifting into a deep and pleasant sleep. They couldn't embrace this however because they needed to lie in wait to activate the rope trap should some random ninja step into it.

"This is dumb." Shikamaru said.

"Shut up." Ino replied.

"I mean, what are the chances that, in a massive forest, a rando happens to- "

"_Shut up!_"

The aggression in Ino's tone was enough to get him to pick his battles for the moment but it didn't change the fact that he was completely correct. The trap was a miracle considering what was at their disposal, but it was still a completely garbage offensive option. The "rope" was really lengths of vine that Shikamaru estimated would probably snap or simply not fasten tight enough before they actually managed to inflict any damage on their target. It didn't help that they couldn't even see the damn thing. Hell, they couldn't even see _each other_. At this very moment, the three of them were at the complete mercy of sound, which meant Choiji's loud snoring was a complete hinderance.

"Quiet him down, will ya?" Ino growled, staying focused on the rope pull.

Shikamaru leaned back and pushed the plump boy's jaw up a slight bit. It wasn't much, but it did enough to shut him up for at least a little bit.

"Are you back yet?" She whispered, attempting to try and navigate despite her lack of sight.

Shikamaru nodded before feeling like an idiot and quickly mumbling a quick "yeah". This got him thinking though. His body ached from walking; his eyelids felt like they were going to snap shut like a sarcophagus any second…why not he just fall asleep. She couldn't see him and she probably wasn't going to call on him until Choji started snoring again. He could get a quick bit of shut-eye in now, _it'd just take 40 winks…_

_**WACK!**_

Ino's shoulder slammed into his gut with an amount of force he'd probably never felt across his whole life. At risk of sounding over-dramatic, he was lucky she didn't manage to rupture anything.

"_Ah! _What was that for?" Shikamaru groaned with feigned ignorance.

"You start breathing through your nose when you sleep you nasally fuck. Keep watching- "She reprimanded.

"You know, this would be easier if you'd hadn't destroyed the cigarettes. We could use them for a light." He replied, rubbing his still-aching stomach.

There was an awkward pause along with an awkward shuffling before she finally replied.

"That's like saying "if we hadn't lost the scroll in the first place- "

"Also your fault." He added.

"_**then we wouldn't be in this situation"**_" Ino finished her sentence with gritted teeth.

There was more shuffling. Despite the complete darkness around them, Shikamaru could instantly tell that her were eyes were locked upon him.

"I would've been more on my guard if you hadn't decided that it was time to take a smoke break like some deadbeat druggie!" She spat venomously.

It was hard to believe that this was the very same woman who had been stressing the importance of silence just a few moments ago. Shikamaru groaned at her newfound aggression, thrusting his hands behind his head.

"Why the fuck do you care?"

"_Because it's in the law. You can't smoke when you're fourteen Shikamaru, that's just how it works!" _She hissed.

He raised an eyebrow, noticing a sternness in her tone that he hadn't heard since they were young. She was different back then. Not that much, but a bit. She wore her hair down and scoffed at woman's clothes that went any higher than the knees, calling them "obscene", which was a word she probably didn't really understand at that age. She was still bossy, but more "hall-monitor" bossy than "bitch" bossy like she was now. A more caring person would've kept this observation to themselves. Shikamaru chose not to.

"You were like this in the fourth grade." He stated, a sudden lowness in his tone slicing through the mood of the darkness better than a candle ever could.

"I don't know what talking about." Ino responded.

No matter how hard she tried, she couldn't suppress the undercurrent of insecurity and defensiveness that lingered in her voice. Shikamaru had been content to try and get a long, dramatic spiel from her but he wasn't going to try and drag it out kicking and screaming. He knew when to pick his battles and now was not the time. Slowly, he shifted onto his back, hoping that it didn't make enough noise for Ino to notice. Luck seemed to be on his side, as the floor stayed static and unnoticing of his presence and so did, she. Maybe it had something to do with him holding his nose.

His naturally analytical mind continued to cling onto the thoughts of their youth. The Nara, Akemichi and Yamanaka clans were always close due to the village liking to pair up their genins in the classic Ino-Shika-Cho formation. She had definitely seemed different back when they were younger but maybe he was just imagining things. It was like Asuma said, dwelling on stuff like this was a total drag. However, if he could figure got a timeline of when she started to lean more into her current personality, then…

Whatever, it wasn't important. It was just a phase, all girls had them.

* * *

Shikamaru found it easy to shake off the residuals of the thought when he awoke. She really wasn't that different. She probably just wanted Sasuke to notice her, that was all. Her goals had never been particularly realistic. When she was younger, she'd claim she wanted to be a "_hero of justice_" like her uncle (whatever that meant) and then when she'd gotten older, her goal had turned into getting Sasuke to sit next to her. People like her were troublesome.

The embers of the fire crackled through the thick air of the early morning. Choji thrust his palms next to it, hoping to capture and store some of its heat.

"Hey, you two…take some of these." Ino's voice burrowed down from the treetops, bringing forth an avalanche of small violet berries.

She was scouting for other ninjas and, as such, was buried too deep in branches and leaves for Shikamaru and Choji to properly see her features.

"What are these?" Shikamaru asked, eyeing them suspiciously.

"Blossom-berries. You can activate them by roasting them over the fire, 'cause their native to Konoha and have evolved to be nourished by a ton of different heat sources. They've got a surprising amount of energy for their size." She explained, as if she were reading directly out of a text book.

Her family owned a flower shop, so it was no surprise she was well-versed in botany.

"Hey, Shika, I think she dropped you most of the berries, can you split them with me?" Choji asked.

"Sure." Shikamaru said, though he was fully qued in to the reality of the situation.

Choji had eaten his berries so quickly, he'd been done by the time Ino decided to inform them of the activation technique. He seemed destined to repeat the same mistakes though, as he held it up to the fire for about five seconds before his hunger got the best of him and hit bit into the palmful of berries. Shikamaru groaned, quickly scooting over to Chojis side.

"No, Choji, you gotta- "

"_**What the fuck?!" **_Ino screamed so loud that it sent birds flying from the trees.

Shikamaru looked up at the treetops with a slightly worried gaze.

"What are you screaming about?" He asked.

"_It's the four eyed fuck. And he's got scrolls__**!**_" She yelled.

"Wait, what?"

* * *

"Next thing I know, the fat kid's rolling towards me _looking _like a human boulder. He was seriously _this _big." Kabuto said, holding his arms out for effect.

Him and Team 7 strolled along the serene stream, an occasional gust of wind blowing through the forest. Shimmers of sunlight bounced through the woods in a harmonic convergence with the chirping of the birds. Because he'd taken the exams so many times, the location of the central tower was essentially hardcoded into his memory. Naruto and Sakura were just happy to have a way out but Sasuke was still cautious. He trailed a few feet behind Kabuto, keeping the scrolls tucked tightly into his pockets. Kabuto was born to a prestigious family. He may have been weak and dopey, but he was definitely clever.

"How much longer until we get there?" Sakura asked.

"We're surprisingly close. I'd clock it at around fifteen minutes." He explained.

Sasuke's eyes wandered over to the two. Surprisingly, it was Sakura who was carrying a majority of the conversation with Kabuto as opposed to Naruto. It wasn't that he seemed to be acting particularly oddly, but the Uzumaki was missing a very obvious spring in his step. Sasuke quickly chose to ignore it, though. After what they'd been through, anyone would feel a little bit slow.

"Are you gonna fail again?" Naruto suddenly asked Kabuto, who turned to him with a surprisingly low amount of dread considering the question.

"Yeah, I probably will. 85% of people who pass the Forest of Death do it before the end of the first three days."

There was a small silence.

"Doesn't that make you feel bad?" Naruto asked.

"I'm used to it." Kabuto responded simply.

Most if not all of the chatter that was rippling through the group was sucked out of the air. Despite the fact that he was "used to it", Kabuto seemed to space out after the question was asked, only snapping back to reality to direct the group further. This only made Sasuke grip onto the scrolls that much tighter. This boy was certainly odd.

After around fifteen minutes, they emerged into the clearing of the hulking tower. It stood proudly over the forest-tops, sun shining off its bright red brick. With all that had happened to them in the forest, it seemed like a sparkling sanctuary. A sign that things were going to be alright.

"Here ya go. Run along and pass." Kabuto said.

"Thanks Kabuto!" Naruto said.

Any joy that had been lost in his stride quickly returned as he dashed out onto the open field. Sasuke and Sakura both proclaimed their own thanks before joining him. Even on achy limb and sore shoulders, the exhilaration of passing into the next stage was enough to get dopamine pumping through their brains for the next little while at least. They quickly joined up with Naruto, parking themselves at the front of the door.

"Alright!" Team 7 passes another stage!" Naruto said, thrusting his arm out in victory.

"It just took getting beat up by a snake guy and lead around by some weirdo." Sakura added, not quite sharing his enthusiasm but happy nonetheless

"But we still _passed_." Naruto chided with a smile.

Before they could, do anything further, Sasuke stepped out in front of the both of them. His posture was looser than it had been, but there was still clear tension within his bones.

"Hey, before we go up, you have to promise not to tell Kakashi anything of what went on in there."

"Wait, why? Orochimaru is a bad guy and he's _so strong_. We can't just not tell people he's here!" Sakura exclaimed, while Naruto stayed surprisingly quiet.

"With some of the stuff Orochimaru was saying, we'll all be put on ANBU watchlists for even interacting with him. I don't know if what he said wastrue, but if it is, that would be highly classified information. There's no way we don't end up being interrogated at best, detained or killed at worst." Sasuke explained.

Sakura attempted to protest, but Naruto swiftly took Sasuke's side.

"He's right. Orochimaru's like, the top big-brain in Konoha history if he wasn't talking bullshit. No way they just let us walk away knowing that stuff."

Sakura looked set to argue back, but her angered expression quickly faded away. Maybe it was agreement, maybe it was peer-pressure.

"Okay." She finally said, gaze casting downward.

"Let's go." Sasuke said, turning around and walking into the towers entrance.

The other two followed along behind him.

* * *

The soles of Kabuto's sandals crunched into the ground, splintering the mud and grass underneath it. A few minutes of walking led him to a tiny forest clearing. It was barely the size of a bathroom cubicle, but it happened to house one other ninja. A boy with long black hair and a tan outfit leaned against the back of tree, exposing only his hands and a bit of his body to the now smiling-boy. This was the place alright. His skin was a splotchy mix of white and pink.

"Have the genin successfully passed?" The boy asked suddenly.

Kabuto marched over to the tree, casually leaning against the other side of it.

"Affirmative, sensei."

"Wonderful. Excellent work, Kabuto."

"I learn from the best." He said replied, with a sunny smile.

"That you do. I imagine they'll hold off on informing people about my presence, but I was regrettably spotted by Anko."

"Reckon she'll grass on you?"

"I imagine so. She has good reason not to, but I'm sure she'll eventually crack under pressure. It'll be prison time for her if Hatake's brats tell anyone what happened. She's tragically emotional, but she's not stupid."

Kabuto laughed. It was like what was being said was just a funny joke to him.

"Will any extra precautions be necessary?"

"Ditch the forehead protectors. If a testimony of the night is given, Dosu and his team will most likely be trailed by ANBU, so please inform them of that and make sure they don't do anything that would warrant questioning. You and The Four will definitely need masks once you get into the arena. Remember Kabuto, you are instrumental in this plan. If your organizational abilities are to fail. You know the risks of what happens if you prove disappointing." The boy said.

Kabuto once again laughed but this one was not genuinely amused. It was smug and self-assured, just like the expression Kabuto began to wear.

"Don't worry, Orochimau-sensei. I'll make sure everything is _perfect_."

With that, he walked away from the area.


	34. Authors Note

While I don't really like making authors notes, I think this is important to write this out to avoid future disappointment due to the nature of the fic. I will not be changing the match-ups for any of the preliminary fights of the Chunin Exams, which I understand my be disappointing for readers who are waiting for the fic to really start diverging from canon. I understand this and also understand why it would make someone feel like dropping the fic.

A massive amount of character-arcs and dynamics I had planned to branch through not just Part 1, but even all the way to the final arc of the story, massively rely on the set-ups of the preliminary fights. I've spent alot of time (potentially to the detriment of the latest chapter) attempting to figure out how I can try to mix it up further, but I think doing so would be change and subversion for the sake of change and subversion, and would not fit with the themes of the fic.

The fights in the Chunin Exams will be heavily remixed and changed (and mostly cut aside from the ending if it's a filler fight that goes exactly the same as canon) as with everything in the fic, but I thought it would be good to be transparent in informing people of this before they continue to read as I feel it can be a major "make or break" issue for some.

I hope that people continue to enjoy the fic, I just wanted to lay this out as transparently as possible before I continue writing.


	35. The Many Lives Of Konoha's Genin

The world was on fire.

That was all Naruto Uzumaki could see. Buildings whose structures toppled under the flame fire, people who had collapsed to the ground in freight, weak bodies finally giving out. A thick smog of red smoke floated through the air. He could not move. He couldn't even make a sound. Any cry for help remained stuck in his lips, utterly muted by the world around him. He was helpless as buildings and people, staples of his youth and the things that made up his home, were engulfed by embers and collapsed to the floor.

_**Boom.**_

The loud sound of stomping flushed through the air, the hard skin of a giant animal cracking against the ground. Naruto looked up and saw it. standing triumphant over even the tallest tops of the village was the Nine-Tailed Fox. Steam blew forth from its nose, while its fangs glimmered sinisterly in the hazy red smoke. He was even larger here than in Naruto's mind, an all-fours posture still leaving his head held higher than the tallest building in the village. Naruto could do nothing but watch as this beast tore through buildings like they were made of cardboard.

A sudden bundle of footsteps rung out behind him, sandals cracking against the scattered debris. He looked back silently to find Hiruzen, dressed in his Hokage garb moving towards him. The sharp edge of a sword dangled to his side while his gaze stayed steely fixated on Naruto, who realized too late what his intention was. The old man raised the blade up above his head before plunging it down at Naruto's stomach.

He couldn't even scream.

* * *

"_**Aaaaaah!**_"

Naruto rolled out of bed doing exactly that. His blanket-covered form thrashed around on the ground for a few seconds before he realized he was not deflecting Hiruzen's sword strike as much as he was punching the shit out of his bedframe. A wave of embarrassment washed over him as he realized he'd probably just treated his neighbors to a symphony of his screams.

"Sorry." He mumbled in case they were listening.

He rubbed a hand through his hair, shaking off stray dandruff. Ever since Orochimaru had weakened the seal, Kurama had treated Naruto's dreams as his own personal theatre. The Uzumaki was shown constant visions on a scale that could only be described as phycological warfare. His friends abandoning him, the village being destroyed in a variety of different ways and his parents abandoning him on the side of the road got all the more vivid each night. He was three days out from the Forest of Death and now there was three days left until the tournament stage began. In all honesty, he didn't know how much more he could take. Maybe he should just go to Kakashi and get the seal fixed…

_**Knock, knock, knock. **_

A thumping came at the door of Naruto's apartment. It's sound floated through the air menacingly for a little while. His eyes darted to the clock on the wall. It was five in the morning, who would be here at that time?

_**Knock, knock, knock. **_

There it was again. Whoever was knocking was clearly not taking no for an answer. His mind began to analytically run through the possibilities of the knocks owner the best it could. It was most likely one of his neighbors coming to check in on him, but he'd woken up screaming before and one of them playing sleep doctor would be a first. He opened a drawer and dug a kunai out, before softly tip-toing over to the door. He gripped the handle, a sharp gulp running down his throat as he realized he may be getting into a fight with whoever was on the other side.

_Click._

"Oh, it's you."

On the other side of the door, with loose posture and tired shoulders, stood Sasuke.

* * *

"Thank you!" Naruto said, as the man passed him a basket of freshly baked bread and other such pastries through the window of the cramped storefront.

He slung the strap of the basket over his shoulder before scampering up to the top of the building where Sasuke was sitting in wait. Without even a word being shared between them, Naruto reached into the basket and chucked him a small glazed brioche.

"I feel like we probably shouldn't be eating all this junk until after the exams are over." Sasuke said, all the while stuffing his face with sweetly-coated butter bread.

"Whatever, it's called carbo-loading dude." Naruto responded, slinging a doughnut around his own finger by the space in its hole.

Sasuke resisted the urge to ask Naruto to explain the ins and outs of "carbo-loading" and how it affected the human body. He instead continued to chew on his brioche, lack of reply fully cementing the fact that carbo-loading just meant "eat anything you want and it's somehow good for you" in Naruto's mind. It wasn't like either could really resist the spoils of the Sunrise Bakery anyway.

The Sunrise Bakery was a shop located within one of Konoha's poorest districts. As such, it wasn't even explicitly called Sunrise Bakery, as the owner couldn't even afford a sign. Naruto and Sasuke had just nicknamed it after the time they always ate there. That wasn't by choice either. The bakery was open from four in the morning until eight, and even then, only on Tuesdays. Sasuke often times wondered how they managed to stay in business, especially since even on the days that were open, he and Naruto were usually some of the only people to show up as very few others would be willing to venture into this part of Konoha. He wasn't complaining though, just curious.

"How's your shoulder?" Naruto asked.

Even the mere mention of his injury (if you could call it that) was met with a groan from Sasuke.

"Bad. It starts to sting really badly when I use chakra, almost like it's constricting it or something."

"Have you tried- "

"Yeah, I tried cutting it." Sasuke immediately predicted what his friend was going to say. "I think the seals too complex. Even a small test cut made it burn like all hell."

"Right." Naruto nodded, sitting down next to him.

The bubbles of a confession edged their way onto his tongue, but a quick bite suppressed this. He couldn't risk telling anyone about his loosened seal. A rational (yet small) part of his brain chided him for being selfish, but Naruto refused to listen. Nearly 14 years with the seal tight as could be, and he had 2 good friends. A few days with a looser one, and he was scared those same friends would disappear.

A loud sigh from Sasuke broke him out of his thoughts. The Uchiha suddenly leaned back, dark eyes glaring up at the sky. The night time was on the way out now, it's moon and stars fading away as the pink-hued glimmers of sunrise began to weave themselves through the sky like the veins of a human body. He felt the first tingles of heat slowly start to sizzle across the bridge of his nose. Sasuke reached forward, as if he were attempting to grab the sky in the palm of his hand. He obviously fell short of this goal.

"There's something big going on. Something we don't know about." He mused.

Silence overtook Konoha. Not for long, just for a moment. The light of early morning was scattered around the village but not just from the sky. The lamps of awakening homes didn't turn on, the bustling of the streets was non-existent and the fresh smell of the damp midnight air continued to flutter through their noses. Everything was quiet, everything was small.

"Well, I'm kinda glad he gave you the tat because now, when I kick your ass in the chunin exams, it'll be even easier." Naruto said, matter-o-factly.

Sasuke rolled to face him, lips curving in an attempt to hide his bemused smile.

"Yeah?"

"Yeah. It'll probably cut it down to five seconds, from the ten seconds I already planned to beat you in."

"Or, alternatively, it'll make it even more embarrassing when you _lose _in five seconds, because I'm at a disadvantage."

Naruto's face twisted up, attempting to try and expel the annoyance that came with Sasuke turning it around on him.

"Well, it actually won't because that won't happen but the other one will." He replied.

"Are you sure?"

"Yes."

"But what if it does happen?"

"It won't, but my one will."

"You'll beat me in five seconds?"

"If I'm having an off-day. I'll probably beat you in one second if I'm feeling good."

Sasuke could not even hold back the smile that was breaking out onto his face. His lips twisted in an attempt to delay it, but it could really only do damage _control_ at that point and even with his suppression attempt, his expression still contorted into a smile.

"Literally how would you even do that?"

"Watch." Naruto casually replied.

He harshly wound his arm back, a battle-ready expression in his eyes. His knuckles clenched hard enough to crack them white as he prepared to throw a punch that would certainly knock Sasuke out in-

"One_._" Sasuke counted back.

Naruto's expression suddenly shifted from focused to comically shocked. It was very clear that he had _gravely _underestimated how small a second was.

"Wait, restart- "

He moved his arm forward, quickening its motion.

"One." Sasuke once again cut him off.

"No, what about this one- "

Naruto's hand shot towards Sasuke's face in a move that would have gotten him disqualified from the regular exams for premature offense, yet it still was unable to pass the threshold.

"_One_." Sasuke yet again counted, stopping the attack dead in its tracks.

This exact process repeated over and over again for what was probably a minute, before Naruto finally withdrew. He crossed his arms in a huff, grumbling to himself as his mouth popped into a pout.

"Yeah, it'll be different in the exams. Just you wait."

Sasuke couldn't help but feel that this was wrong considering they would almost definitely start further away from each other than they were now.

* * *

"Wow, that's a lot of space." Naruto whistled to himself, as he and Sasuke passed by the housing block on their way to go spar.

Sasuke said nothing, probably because he literally lived in a compound that was bigger than the whole housing block himself. The housing block was a section of land that had been bought by the villages government and used to house those who were in poverty or had immigrated from other countries. It had been introduced under Hashirama, had its budget slashed to all hell with Tobirama, then its funding was somewhat put back in place under Hiruzen and gradual improvements were made under Minato. It was a large building, certainly one of the tallest in Konoha, but its drearily grey structures leaned more on width as a way to effectively house all its tenants. The building stretched onward for what looked like miles, cramped balcony's acting as signposts for the number of apartments that had been crammed into it. This was the building that usually housed the people who had made the trip over from Suna and other countries for the chunin exams.

"_**Gaara you selfish little fuckwad!**_" Kankuro screamed, face being deprived of it's purple paint in the early morning light

The boy in question sat a few meters across the room, emotionless. A small empty packet of snack food sat by his legs while a ring of food dust coated his lips, it's color crimson enough that it almost matched his hair. The room was large enough to house each Sand sibling around two meters away from each other. Theoretically, this would do good to keep them out of contact with each other but it didn't appear to be the case here. As the light from the balcony window shone into their faces, it illuminated nothing but anger. Well at least it did in Kankuro's case. His fury was present in every square-inch of his unpainted-features, which looked quite comical when paired with the sagging ball of his sleeping cap.

"Kankuro, calm down." Temari sighed, rubbing her sleepy eyes while her messily-bunned hair still leaked down her pajama-covered back in strands of blonde. "What'd he even do?"

"_He stole my chili twists_!"

The crumpled-up packet of snacks and the dust around Gaara's chin made more sense now.

"Oh, for god's sake- "She groaned.

"Just buy a new packet." Gaara said, clearly not apologetic in the least.

"They don't sell them in Konoha, not even in the import shops. That's why I made sure to pack one packet before we left!"

Gaara turned his body away from Kankuro, becoming completely disinterested in the argument as he fully grasped why his brother was mad at him.

"Should've put your name on them."

"_They were in __**my**__ bag!_"

"I didn't see. I thought it was mine." Gaara replied, not even _attempting _to hide the fact that he was lying.

Kankuro's anger drained from his face to his fists. His hands clenched harshly, bleaching his knuckles white in the process. Without even thinking, he grabbed a stray magazine that had been discarded onto the ground and _threw _it forwards at Gaara with blistering speed. The boy wasn't facing him, meaning the attack was essentially invisible until it wacked over his head. However, just before it could hit, a stream of sand leaked out of his gourd and raced to his defense. Its grainy form shifted as it caught the magazine in its soft but firm grasp. Kankuro bit his lip in regret.

Before he could say anything back, a stream of sand came flying at his chest. It slammed onto him, sending him scuttling across the room and pinning him against solidly against the wall. His writhed around for a second before he realized it was useless against the sands power. Gaara's arm was thrust backward, jittery in its posture, while his eyes leered back from the obstruction of his still turned shoulder. For a very faint second, Kankuro legitimately thought he was going to die.

"Gaara_, _let him go." Temari spoke sternly.

He complied almost immediately.

A sigh of relief eased from Kankuro's lips, swiftly followed by several spittings of stray sand grains that had become soldered onto his tongue due to the Gaara's grip. There was a small strain of silence before he finally spoke.

"Malnourished little prick." He spat.

Gaara's posture turned rigid once more, as he fully turned around to face Kankuro. Even the smallest bit of confrontation was usually enough to set him off and this was far more than a "small bit". His sand shot forward once more, only stopping as Temari stepped in the way of it.

"Stop it." She said.

"Get him to stop talking. I no longer wish to engage with him." Gaara growled back, nevertheless motioning to send his sand slinking back into the confines of the gourd.

"Conversations aren't something you can just switch off, dumb fuck- "Kankuro began to protest, before Temari's stern gaze switched toward him.

"You could've just eaten some yesterday and shared it with him." She pointed out.

Even if it was an unrealistic request for Kankuro to base his food-eating times around someone else, it was true that Gaara had a streak of not respecting others property. In that sense, they were lucky he was only really interested in food or else they probably wouldn't have anything left in either of their bags.

"He wouldn't do that. Fat fuck." Gaara added, completely contradicting what he'd just been saying.

_**CRACK!**_

Kankuro's hand came smashing against the wall with enough force to send cracks running through its slick wood exterior. He angrily leapt up to his feet, grabbing his puppets sarcophagus as he did so before charging over towards the door and unlocking it.

"I don't have to deal with this shit. I'm going to work on Crow, you two can both get _**fucked**_!" He said, slamming the door in his wake.

A long silence weaved itself through the room after his exit. Temari was too stunned to say anything. Gaara simply never spoke unprompted unless he wanted something.

The Suna girl walked over to her bag, retrieving a small, folded piece of paper before turning to Gaara.

"I'm going out to the balcony."

He said nothing back. Why would he? He didn't care.

Temari walked outside, opening the glass door with a slight push of her hand. The dreamy morning air immediately washed over her face, cooling it to the touch. It was thick with perspiration, to the point that if she opened her mouth, she was half-sure she'd wind up taking a drink of water. The balcony was cramped, serving mainly as a poor attempt to add some class to the confined apartments, but she didn't mind, even if it paled to their home in Suna. They were on the top floor with the rest of the Suna ninja, so it wasn't like she had another rooms balcony covering her head or anything like that. The main problem was with Kankuro and Gaara. Their home was large, and each of them had rooms to themselves, so interaction between the two of them was minimal. Here, not so much. Even if their room was one of the larger "family-sized" flats, they were still packed together far too closely to completely avoid conflict.

God those two were the worst, if only she could…

Her hands dug into the paper, though she quickly stopped to avoid tearing it. Her dainty fingers unfolded its pages, revealing the years-old dried words and tattered paper that housed them. Her emerald eyes scanned the page, running over the aged ink with precision.

_Temari my darling, I write to you in my final hours with a complete acceptance of what is to come. I'm sorry I cannot write any more but I fear even one more word over what I planned to write would be too much for my heart to bare. I know you will turn out to be a wonderful, kind and thoughtful woman under the guidance of your father. In the wake of my leave, please take care of your brothers. Gaara will be far too young when he learns the evils of this world and Kankuro is so very angry. He has already experienced this pain once before. Swear to me that you will always be there for them when they fall down, it is your duty as the eldest child of the current line. And remember that no matter what happens my beautiful girl, I will always love you and your brothers more than anything else in this world. _

She breathed in a sharp breath before reaffixing her gaze at the sunrise in the distance. She was Temari of The Desert, middle-child of the Kazekage and eldest of the main line. She must be presentable; she must be patient and she must be perceptive. Slowly, she grabbed at the hair-ties of her messy bob of hair, reaffixing them into a neater bundle of blonde. Her eyes continued to gaze over the Konoha skyline, taking in the architecture. It was a good view. She could see almost every clan building…

* * *

The dining room of the Inuzuka household bustled with the chatter of eight or so kids squirming into the cramped edges of the breakfast table. Every one of them had long red marks on their cheeks. Only a meter away from them, an older woman with wild, messy brown hair, a pull over hoodie and matching cheek marks grumbled along to herself, while a fragrant mix of miso and grain wafted from the stove-top.

"I want pancakes!" A child cried, words absorbing into the babble of his brothers and sisters.

"Well you're getting soup and rice!" She shouted back.

Sometimes she wished she'd only had three or so kids, or at least had spaced them about a bit better. All the fucking dogs as well. At least she didn't have to clean up after them, but all of them squirming around the cramped kitchen and dining room set-up was doing her head in. A thumping sound suddenly rumbled from the upstairs bedroom and Kiba Inuzuka soon emerged into the room, clothes messily fitted onto him with a frantic motion bouncing through his posture. He made a beeline for the stove top, eagerly snatching a bundle of rice into a small box he'd been holding.

"Hey mum, I've got training today so, I've gotta- "

"_Hey, hands off_. Soups not done boiling!" His mother scolded, slapping his hands.

Kiba winced, backing away while Akamaru, who clung to the inside of his hoodie, mewled in second-hand pain. The boy strode backward to the table where his siblings sat. With a bite of his tongue, he attempted to block out the cluttered chatter but upon seeing his youngest brother, Koinu, splatter peanut butter all over his clothes, Kiba's fraternal instincts kicked in. He quickly darted over to his sibling, grabbing a bib from the clothes rack.

"Hey, ya' can't be messy like that." He grumbled, tying the bib around the younger boy's chest.

"Sorry big brother." He murmured back.

Koinu was three years old, so Kiba wasn't particularly concerned with him not having impeccable table manners. Instead, his gaze turned towards the girl who sat opposite to him. She was young, probably around eleven years old. Her light brown hair had been cut into a short, boyish cut. Her slick brown eyes wandered over the table, as her hands played with her long since detached orange peel.

"Hey, Hiru. Eyes up." Kiba scolded, getting only an apathetic glare from her in response. "You're the oldest at the table now, so you have to take care of the littlies."

"Whatever. Just 'cause you and Hana were big idiots who took care of all of these dummies doesn't mean I have too."

"Don't be a brat." He chided.

His tone was far more commanding and balanced than his usual goofy attitude would let you think he was capable off, but for the people at the breakfast table, it was all they'd ever known.

"I'm not being a brat!" Hiru yelled back.

"You totally are."

"Am not!"

The sudden presence of Kiba's mother quickly derailed the argument. She handed Kiba a container of rice and a warm tin thermostat for his soup before turning to Hiru.

"Hiru, stop being a brat."

The girl slammed her hands down on the table with enough force to shake it, though her actions were only a drop in the bucket of the oceanic squabbles that rustled through the Inuzuka siblings.

"I'm going to my room!" She spat, storming off in a huff.

"_Oh no you're not_! Get back here- "His mother tried to dissuade her, but the girl's resolve was unmoving.

The older woman's eyes snapped back to Kiba.

"What time are you going to be home today?"

"Between four and six, depending on how long Kurenai-sensei keeps us." He replied.

"_Probably seven cause he's going to be out kissing his fancy Hyuga girlfriend!" _Hiru's voice came echoing from another room.

Despite the fact that she may have successfully been able to get away from breakfast, she just couldn't help herself. Unfortunately, this insult was only being thrown around because she'd found success using it prior. This was probably around the twentieth time she'd slung it Kiba's way, and now, what had once been a roaring knockout became an easily-deflected softball.

"_Nah, she only likes morons! That's why I told her you and her would be good friends!" _ He yelled back, a yelp from Akamaru adding even more bite to the insult.

It was a completely lame attack, but Kiba wasn't exactly boxing at his own weight-class here. This was an argument with his eleven-year-old sister, even his worst barbs would end up end up trumping her best. In this instance, Hiru didn't even bother trying to trade with him, and instead rushed towards the point of no-return with seemingly little care for what would be left in the aftermath.

"_**Fuck you!**_" She shouted back.

"Alright, _that's it_!" Kiba's mother yelled, stomping down the halls like a wolf rushing towards its prey.

Kiba's own instincts kicked in, with the boy recognizing he wanted no part in the tongue-lashing his sister was about to receive. He turned sharply on his heel and took off towards the door, rushing out into the early-morning streets.

* * *

Ino's elbow rested gently against the table as the aroma of the numerous flowers that lined the stores shelves crawled up into her nose. If they had been sampled separately, it would have definitely been pleasant, but they were not. Instead, what she was smelling was just one big homunculi of fragrances that should never, under any circumstances, have gone together. The aisles of the Yamanka flower shop were plentiful with plants, but customers seemed to be in short supply. Maybe it was because the truth of this venture had become clear, that it was a vanity-driven, pointless front to give an already powerful clan even more capital, wealth and status.

Or maybe it was because they hadn't opened yet, it was hard to tell.

"Ino, I already told you to water the magnolias on aisle 3. What are you standing around for?" Her mother called out from the backroom, slightly irritated.

"Doing it now." Ino replied, volume of her voice lowering to a whisper as she let out a groan.

She kneeled down to the shelves behind the counter, grabbing the pre-filled watering can and strolling down to the allocated aisle. A tilt of her hands sent a clear stream of water onto the flowers. Clumped droplets of water clung to the lily-white petals; who's color matched that of the casual shirt she was wearing. Her wrist tilted with a tentative precision that sacrificed not one drop of water to anything but it's intended destination. Upon seeing the soil and plants fully moisturized, Ino withdrew the watering can and smiled at the sight her handiwork. Then her eyes tiled to the tin object in her hands. Come to think of it, she was kind of thirsty…

With a gentle tilt of its head, she raised the watering can to her mouth. It was just going to be a quick drink, no one would know. Hell, there was no one even in the street…

_**BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!**_

The sound of running footsteps quickly proved her wrong. Her eyes shot upward to find Kiba rushing along the streets like he'd just saw a ghost. His form was fast enough that he soon disappeared from the sight of the storefront, but the suddenness of his appearance was enough to get her to hesitate for a few seconds. Light footsteps, not at all like the prosperous scurrying of the Inuzuka boy, rung out from her back. Before she could do anything to rectify her appearance, her mother was already shrieking.

"_Ino_, _get that away from your mouth!_" She growled, to which Ino did with enough force to nearly sent its liquid contents spilling out onto the ground.

"I thought I saw a bug. I was just checking it out!" She replied, thinking that if she injected enough anger into her tone, it would disguise the fact that she was obviously about to drink out of the watering can.

"Oh really?" Her mother spat back, not believing her bluff in the slightest.

Sune Yamanaka was an elegant woman with pale skin, far more so than Ino herself. She wore a stylish green dress that was embroidered with a small emerald-like gem on the chest (though this was covered up by an apron while she worked in the shop for fear of staining it with dirt). Her hazel hair was tied up into one large bun, it's color and shape almost resembling some kind of fruit nut. She marched over to her daughter, snatching the watering can out of her hands before going to work on another aisle of exotic blue flowers.

"I will say, I'm quite happy you decided to help me out today. Shouldn't you be training for the exams?"

Her voice was posh, with hints of a Kiri accent bleeding into the usual Konoha vernacular.

"We already trained a bit yesterday. Besides, Asuma said that the time until the tournament starts is so small, he can't even really teach us anything he hasn't already."

Her mother's brow furrowed.

"That man is so lazy, I can't believe he's a Sarutobi."

Her eyes suddenly switched to Ino, with an unexpected fear circling through them.

"Don't you ever become like him or Shikaku's son. We can't have people like that ruining the clan's reputation."

Ino would have reminded her that her views on "the clan's reputation" were easily discarded considering she married into it, but she didn't want to get into a squabbling match of epic proportions so she stayed silent except for a small murmur of:

"I won't mum."

"Thank goodness." Her mother replied, resting a dainty hand on her aproned heart. "Oh, that reminds me. We will be having a family gathering in remembrance of your uncles passing. Even some of the family stationed in posts in other countries will be returning for this."

Ino's breath stopped. It was only for a second but it stopped.

"That's exciting." She finally said, biting her lip to try and keep the unease from leaking into her tone.

"Mhm." Her mother mumbled in agreement. "Do try and win your exam fight dear. It would be disappointing for you to have to tell them all you didn't pass into the final stage."

"I need some water." Ino said suddenly, walking over to the backroom.

"Not from the can I hope?" The older woman added, with a small laugh.

She received nothing in response. Ino disappeared into the room behind the counter, eyes staying fixated on the sink in a vain attempt to try and keep her attention on something other than what her mother had said. She reached into the dishwasher rack, grabbing a plastic glass. It was no use. Her angered thoughts began to pulse through from her mind all the way to her arms. She closed her eyes in an attempt to contain them, to not let them pour out but this proved ineffective. Her hands clutched down against the cup, sending threats of damage cracking through its frail plastic base.

Just keep it in.

Just keep it in.

_Just keep it in_.

_**Crack!**_

With one final stressed squeeze, the plastic of the cup broke in her hand, sending pieces of hard, clear material falling to the ground.

"_Fuck._" Ino whispered to herself.

She quickly scooped up the remnants, stuffing them in her pockets before looking forward at the sink. With a shaky hand, she switched the water on.

_Stupid old man._

* * *

"Hey, uncle, you know smoking's bad for your lungs, right?" A blonde girl scolded as she walked along the riverbank with an older man of similar hair color.

This was Ino Yamanaka. She was eight years old. Her hair was worn incredibly plainly while the hem of her purple dress reached down so far it nearly touched her toes. She wore a floral white long-sleeve top that connected to said dress with purple suspenders. Her uncle walked along by here, a lit cigarette dangling from his lips. Steam trailed of the embers of its end, harmonizing with the calm ripples of the riverside. He had matching blonde hair, longer than what was expected of a boy and wore a traditional green flak jacket.

"Yeah, I do." He said back, stowing the cigarette for the moment.

"Then why are you doing it?" She asked, both annoyed and befuddled.

He just laughed.

"You'll figure it out when you turn 18."

An annoyed divot draped itself across Ino's usually spotless brow.

"Aren't you supposed to be a jonin? A jonin shouldn't be doing things like that." She said, child-like brain not being able to wrap her head around the concept of tobacco.

"A jonin's job is to protect people in the city. You can have a smoke if you want."

Ino's face scrunched up.

"Whatever. When I become a jonin, I'm going to be to represent the Yamanka clan and show everyone just how good a prodigy of the Yamanka clan is!"

Her uncle said nothing back.

* * *

Fire raged through the room, trails of smoke filling the young girls' lungs. It had just been a simple fire jutsu, she'd seen her father perform a dozen times over. Why, no, _how _had it turned out like this? She was supposed to be a prodigy…

There was no escape from the oncoming inferno as its parasitic flames covered more and more of the room. Ino bundled in on herself, trying to starve off the grip of the ever-blistering warmth that was creeping closer and closer towards her. The sound of wood burning under the fire was the only one coming from the room. Her lungs were achy with smoke inhalation and no matter how much she tried; she could utter not even a single word. Her line of sight was filled with the inferno and only the inferno. It was bright, sharp and powerful. There was no way out.

_**Fwoosh!**_

Suddenly, a pair of arms became wrapped around her. Her form was pulled close while flecks of wind chakra erupted up around the room. It wasn't enough to fully put the fire out, but it was enough to create an exit path. The man carrying her leapt forward with grace and poise. In a literal blink of her eyes, she had been laid upon the floorboards of the hallway outside the fire. No longer was she ensnared by the ever-present flames. She was safe.

As her sight returned, her sense overload. Her mother was gripping onto her with tears running down her cheeks, while her father checked her pulse. Even through her weary sight however, Ino could make out the person who'd rescued her. In his mouth sat a lit cigarette.

He looked mad.

"I don't care what kind of prodigy you are Ino, don't you _ever fucking do that shit!_ Talents means nothing if you're endangering others. Imagine if there'd been another kid in there with you! Imagine if you'd tried to show it off to your friends!" Her uncle yelled, adrenaline burning as hot as the flames of the room.

Even through the rush of the still-burning fire, the wails of her mother and the explosions of water chakra that rushed through into the room, Ino heard his message loud and clear.

She agreed with it.

* * *

In the weeks that followed the incident, Ino began to change. In particular, she had newfound priorities. She was always up as early as she needed to be for the Academy, even the smallest bits of homework were delivered days before the due-date and she never, _ever _disobeyed a demand from her mother and father. A girl who had been previously been arrogant and prideful, suddenly became a strict-rule follower, even more so than she had been before.

Her arms strayed put neatly in her lap as she listened to Iruka go around the class, asking why they wanted to be a ninja. She didn't dare put her elbows up.

"Ino, why do you want to become a ninja?" Iruka finally asked.

She looked up with a determined look in here eye, posture perfectly symmetrical.

She remembered the fire.

She remembered her uncle.

"Because I want to be a hero of justice! I'll make sure everyone follows the rules and doesn't make dumb mistakes. If no one does that stuff, that'll mean everyone's protected and no one has to get hurt!"

* * *

She started to become a bit more unpopular at school that term. As much as the sole heir of one of Konoha's most prestigious clans could be at least. It wasn't her fault either, some of them just didn't know how to follow the rules, especially some of the boys. Naruto just couldn't help himself some of the time…

She sighed as her full teal eyes gazed outside the small window of her uncle's cabin. She'd been coming her a lot lately. He was kind of her teacher now. Well, not in the professional sense, but he taught her a lot. More than Iruka-sensei did. A small terrarium filled with a bunch sprouting green weeds sat on the sill. She pointed up at it.

"Uncle, what's that one?" She asked, pointing at it.

He leapt up quickly, snatching it from the sill with a haste that almost betrayed the sunny smile he shot down at her.

"Just a plant. I can't even remember when I got that one, so don't expect me to know what breed it is."

Despite the plant being so insignificant, he still took the time to stow the plant within the confines of his desk. Her uncle kept a few secrets from her. There was a medium-sized safe she'd found in his basement one time. She'd wanted so desperately to open it, but her newfound code of morals overruled her natural-born tenacity. She couldn't just open someone else's property up like that, what if it was booby-trapped? It might set another fire and at this point, she couldn't risk the relationship with her uncle. He was teaching her more about the Yamanka clan techniques, about botany and psychiatry. At the rate she was going, she may end up able to manifest a mind avatar by the end of the year. That would bump her grades up for sure!

"Hey, Ino, did I ever tell you about the time I met Lord Third?" He asked, tossing some more firewood onto the small furnace he kept in the cabin.

"Like, the Hokage?!" She asked, beginning to feel somewhat starstruck.

"Yep."

"Really?!"

"Yeah, when me and your dad were younger, we met him. This was when he was young though and he had a fat face like _this_."

He gripped both his cheeks and pulled them apart, stretching his skinfolds in a comical way. Ino immediately laughed at the sight.

Nearly every afternoon, she'd make her way over to his cabin, be it for training or for study. Her uncle would regale her with tales of his time as a jonin, giving her an inside view of the higher-ranks of ninja that she wouldn't get from class. Inosu Yamanka was a highly-decorated jonin, specializing in interrogation, so of course he'd know a lot. His knowledge was not confined to his stories alone though. Every time he and Ino trained, it would leak into their training too.

* * *

"Kunai out, guard up!" He yelled, spitting a volley of fireballs over the floor of the forest.

Ino did as instructed, keeping her kunai up as she weaved and deflected. These were only training jutsu's, their speed sluggish and their heat not much greater than a humid summer day, but Ino treated them as if she was being bombarded with the real deal.

"There's civilians around to the back of you, what do you do?" He asked, briefly halting his attacks.

"Attempt to take control of the threat and lead it's attacks away!" She replied, words obviously being instinctively ingrained within her mind.

"Right."

He clasped his hands over his mouth, steam flowing through from his cheeks. With a sharp exhale, he sent another flame volley flying forward through the air. Its spread was erratic, but precise at the same time. They were quicker then before. She tried to deflect a few of them, but their combined force quickly caused her light form to spill onto the ground. She groaned slightly, rubbing her back as she lurched forward somewhat. Her eyes looked up, as Inosu approached her with a calm stride in his step.

"You're letting yourself get boxed in. You need to be fast and smart enough to make me aim my fireballs around where you're moving instead of playing defense the whole time."

She nodded with a steely discipline in her eyes.

"Okay."

His face twisted into a smile.

"Great, let's go over it again."

* * *

Her arms rested over the wood balcony fence of her home as she looked into the sky. It was dark, clouds heavy with the weight of the oncoming rainfall. Crackles of thunder and flashes of lighting repeatedly danced across the murky plain. She really should go back inside soon, but couldn't bring herself to do so. It was very pretty.

Soon enough, she noticed a stout man with black hair and round spectacles beginning to orbit around the fence to the clan building. He had a belt that included several scrolls of long parchment paper as well as a few pens of differing colors while his muck of hair was covered by a wide brimmed hat. The man's actions were comical in their awkwardness, as he attempted to find some way of trying to get over the fence, even going as far to try and climb over it outright. Unfortunately, his pudgy frame relegated to this an impossibility. After what felt like minutes of gawking at him, Ino finally became unnerved enough by his persistence to ask him what he was doing.

"Who are you?" She asked, voice echoing down from the rooftops.

His face became flush with embarrassment as he noticed he was being watched, only for his features to quickly snap back to serious.

"Hello! I'm Shinji Tsume, from the Konoha read and sell." He said.

Read and sells were monthly ten-page accumulations of news that had were sought out by  
"reporters". Occasionally, they got big scoops but, as much as they refused to admit it, they were not at all privy to most of the important news pertaining to the government and their publications were usually filled with fluff pieces. Ino didn't have time for them.

"What are you doing here?"

He pulled out a small scroll and unfurled it. His wide eyes traced along the paper, memorizing its information, before looking back up to Ino.

"A victim of a drug trade has recently named certain members of the Yamanka clan as both perpetrators and ring leaders. I was hoping to interview the members in question before submitting a report to the Hokage's office."

Ino's brow furrowed. A drug trade? Drugs were…bad. There was no way this could be right?

"Who did the person name? The main one I mean." She asked, an obvious anxiety interjecting itself in her voice.

Shinji looked up at her as if the information he was about to relay to her would not completely change her life.

"Inosu Yamanaka."

* * *

A few weeks later, Ino could not get to sleep. The covers were uncomfortable and scratchy, the pillows couldn't properly hold her head and her feet stuck out the edges of sheet just slightly enough that the night air brushing against them was both subtle yet inescapable. She could not fall asleep and she didn't know why.

After all, her uncle had been cleared of all wrongdoing. It had been revealed to have been some lower ranking men in the clan, who had abused their positions to funnel hard drugs to minors for some side-cash. That made sense. Her uncle wouldn't do anything like that, he was a highly-respected ninja who had reverence for the rules. He wouldn't, no, _couldn't _do that. At least, that's how the logic went in Ino's childlike brain but there were a few things she couldn't shake off. That vault in his house…no, there was no way! There was absolutely no way. _Positively _no way. In fact, Ino was completely sure that when snuck out, arrived at the cabin with her spare key and broke into the safe, that there would be nothing there.

Inosu was staying at the compound tonight, so she didn't have to worry about him spotting her. Her months upon months' worth of perfect behavior began to pay-off as no one in the family had even thought of the possibility of her sneaking out after lights out but she was. Her untidily shoed feet dashed along the late-night streets. She ran so fast; it was like she was trying to escape the moonlight itself.

After around twenty minutes of non-stop running, she finally found herself at his cabin. Her breath was uncatchable, the fear of what she was doing jamming into her lungs. On wobbly legs and shaky palms, she jammed the key into the hole and screwed it. A sharp click was heard as the contents of the cabin became opened up to her. Tentative steps brought her forward, though she was careful to avoid any of the traps he'd pointed out to her since she started making daily visits to the place. She soon kneeled next to the safe, gripping its plastic handle beneath her palms. It was pricey yet primitive, and incredibly quick to crack if you know the right motions. She'd watched her uncle open it a few times when he thought she was gone. Its code was not particularly complex.

_2, 3, 5, 2._

_**Click.**_

For a few seconds, her hand stayed still. Maybe part of her didn't want to see what was behind it. She stowed her fear for the moment, opening the door of the safe with the same energy was one did when ripping off a band-aid.

_**Fwoosh!**_

The reverb of a snapping wire trembled through the safe. Before Ino could even get a decent look at it, the contents exploded into a haze of fire. It was small and contained, so it posed no danger of spreading but a few seconds and the small stack of papers that had been contained in vault would be blackened to the point of no-return. In a way, this would be even worse than finding proof that her uncle did it. It would mean every year of her life would now be spent clouded with insatiable "what-ifs" that could never be answered. He wouldn't have rigged it to detonate if it was nothing right?

She had to act fast.

Ino's ninja instincts kicked in and her eyes scanned the room for something that could brave the fire. She spotted one of the prongs by the fireplace and immediately grabbed it before guiding it back to the vault. She used its grip to push the papers over to her, spreading them out so as to get a better chance of skimming all their contents before they completely bunt up.

What she was took her breath away.

It was all there. Drug specifications, trading routes, contingences, _fall guys_. It had been meticulously plotted out, hence why it even needed to be transcribed onto pieces of paper in the first place. In no more than a few seconds of reading, Ino's entire world had shifted. Her Uncle, who always meticulously followed the rules and was a decorated war ninja was in reality, no more than a filthy drug dealer who prayed on the disadvantaged of Konoha.

And he would never be punished for it.

* * *

Ino came down with a cold the next day. Not actually, but that was the reason she gave her mother and father as to why she couldn't get out of bed. In reality, it was a mixture of things. Not only had her rules-focused worldview been expose as nothing more than the ideology of a predatory criminal, but that same predatory criminal would eventually find out someone knew. How could he not? His safe had caught fire for fucks sake. She didn't know how many people he'd given a spare key too, but it couldn't have been so many as to make it impossible to narrow down right?

The rain pattered on her window, streaking down the surface like tear-drops. As the day wore on, Ino did nothing but bury her face in the covers and pillows, hoping somehow that she would snap awake from a bad dream. She could not face the world now that she did not understand it. Hours ticked away on the clock and the rain didn't subside. If this was under better circumstances, she would have felt relaxed but the way she felt now, the hard pitter-pattering against the window almost felt like a cruel laughter.

Then a pair of footsteps came resting at her door.

"Ino?" Her uncles voice came into the room.

Every muscle in her body tensed up. She could not let them relax. In her current state, she appeared to be sleeping and she was content to let it stay that way.

This apparent slumber didn't halt the man. He strode over to her bedside, retrieving a chair from her desk and setting it up with a relaxed posture akin to one you'd see at the beach. Despite the lack of apparent tone shifts in his voice, Ino had been around her uncle long enough to tell that his cadence was off. It was darker, more cerebral even if not by much. One question immediately raced through her head:

Did he know?

_**Creeck. **_

A gentle kick shut of the door answered yes.

He sighed, frame of the chair creaking as he laid back against it.

"People do a lot of bad things don't they Ino?" He said.

She said nothing back. She was asleep.

"Those guys selling drugs? Man, the stuff they were doing was _criminal_. It's a disgrace to the Yamanaka clan to have such low-level thugs within their ranks."

She said nothing back. _She was asleep_.

"But…do you ever think about why people do bad things?"

Her teeth bit down so hard against her lip, they threatened to draw blood. She was lucky he could not see her face.

"See, Ino, things aren't always, or even usually black and white. A lot of petty crimes can be justified with the currency of influence. That's the one thing that matters most in this world. Influence and whether that influence is over someone or _something_ is really irrelevant. It is the most useful currency in the world but because of that, it's also the hardest to obtain and sometimes, you need to do _bad things _to get it."

Even though they were not even facing each other, she could feel his gaze burrowing down to her very soul.

"But you know what? When someone's done something bad already…it's very easy for them to bad things again. In a way, it's almost like a drug."

_**SHINKT!**_

That sound almost did it. The sharp piercing noise almost caused her to emit a noise but her body managed to hold on. It was the sound of a kunai being sharpened.

"And people who don't realize or try to obstruct that…well, bad things are almost guaranteed to happen to them."

He let the threat sit in the air, just for a little bit. It was so she understood.

A few seconds later, he left the room without so much as a word more. That was Ino's last real interaction with her uncle.

* * *

Months past and, in that time, her pristine behavior deteriorated at an astonishing rate. Out was her politeness and strict law-abiding attitude, back in was her pride and arrogance as a Yamanaka. Her mother and father couldn't be that angry. Having a wonder-child for nearly a year was amazing but they supposed it was just a phase. To ask for more would be selfish of them.

With a renewed school year came a renewed Ino Yamanaka. Her plain blonde hair became tied up in a stylish pony-tail and her boring old senju-era suspender dress was replaced with a low-cut purple outfit whose more exposed parts she only reluctantly kept bandaged up. With a few lame friends ditched and a few clever barbs thrown at the typical classroom losers, her popularity soared once again and it would only increase more when she snagged herself a cute Uchiha boyfriend. Admittedly, part of Ino genuinely did like the attention and the rush of being better than someone else but it was hardly the reason for her change in attitude. Her main goal was simple.

Under her uncle's bullshit "rule-abiding" that he himself didn't know how to follow, Ino Yamanaka was basic, boring and too strict for anyone to bother listening to her. Now, she was eye-catching, funny and when she spoke, it was like the Hokage himself was giving a speech. She had it. She had _influence_.

The ends justified the means, right?

* * *

The rush of water over her hands brought Ino back to reality. She was back in the flower shop.

She snapped to attention, making a quick mental note to replace the snapped plastic cup before her mother found out, Ino returned upward. It was about time to open, and she guessed her mother had already done so judging by the small bustling of voices that entered the shop. She quickly beelined back towards the counter, taking her post only to notice a customer was already standing in line. He had neatly placed a few ryo on the counter, but that was not what she was concerned about. She recognized the boy from somewhere.

"Hey, aren't you Hinata's cousin?" She asked him.

Neji looked at her like she'd just insulted him.

* * *

He managed to hold the insults for the main house back as much as he could. It wasn't what he was there for after all. He walked away from the shopping window with a bouquet of violet tinged flowers balancing from his shoulder. The streets were beginning to bustle now with the ever-rising sun giving rise to the first glimpses of families, chunin patrols and the flushing of street lanterns. Despite observing Konoha quite literally awaken right in front of him, his blank-faced expression never changed. Not once did his eyes fill with life, not once did he even acknowledge anything that was going on around him. That was until, his pilgrimage led him to a public gravesite. Tombstone were loosely fitted into the ground, engraved with names in plain font. Even in death, the main house showed them no respect. He had come to expect it.

His footsteps were light as he marched through the grounds, this move being intentional. He was surrounded by so much death. To weigh himself steady down against the ground would almost be to bind himself to the agony and sadness that rippled through every inch of cemetery soil. Neji was only concerned with one tombstone though. The one at the very far corner of the graveyard, tucked away so tightly it may as well have been invisible. The one with the chipped stone and blurred engravings that were barely legible due to what he could only assume were intentional degradation. The one so

With the same blank expression on his face, he laid the bouquet down against the stone and promptly walked off. If you spent so much time in a graveyard, it would end up far too familiar by the time you passed and Neji couldn't let that happen now.

Not until the Hyuga clan was left in disarray.


	36. Preliminary Clash: The Penultimate Stage

The footsteps of Team 7 echoed throughout the spiral staircase as both the genin and Kakashi were led down the path by a stern-looking jonin holding a lantern. Its soft but bright rays of light shone through the stairs, bouncing off their jagged edges and leaving creased shadows on the brick walls. They had received a letter stating the location of the preliminary tournament only a day before it had been scheduled to begin. Sasuke had guessed that it was done intentionally, in order to try and throw lazy-ninja off their game and maybe cause them to miss out altogether. Kakashi correctly replied that the post and its couriers had simply been swamped that day. They soon came to a door, which the jonin guiding them swiftly unlocked before beginning to ascend up the staircase. The three genin emerged into the arena hall with butterflies swarming their stomach, whilst Kakashi looked profoundly board. The awe of what came next was most definitely lost on him at this point.

Along with every other genin team that had passed the exam, Team 7 found themselves standing on a stretch of veranda that overlooked the decently large stadium. Its floors were constructed of a light green tile that, while being incredibly smooth, also housed various shallow scratches. A ceramic display of two arms clenching into a hand sign stood imposingly at the very head of the room. In front of them, was a small podium, on which Hiruzen stood. To his side was the same ninja who had led Team 7 into the exam halls during the first stage. Genma, Sakura thought his name was.

Naruto couldn't help but look down at Hiruzen with concern. As much as he didn't want to think about it, the thing Orochimaru was saying kept finding a way to haggle their way into his thoughts. The Nine-Tails, Yugito Nii, his family…there were too many things he needed to ask about but these were all things that could prove fatal if asking about them was taboo. If what Orochimaru had said about that Yugito lady was really true, could he _really _trust the old man? After-all, he'd been walking around as a god-damn demon incubator for god knows how long and it hadn't even been Hiruzen who had told him.

Luckily, his wandering eyes soon found themselves latched onto something that would clear his thoughts for the moment. As he and his teammates walked along the balcony, he noticed Dosu's gaze trailing them. Eyes met eye with Naruto silently snarling in an attempt to get him to redirect his eyes. Dosu simply waved back to him. This was hardly the only interaction that transpired between Team 7 and the other ninja though. Sakura whispered a pleasantry as she passed Tenten, Kakashi had to quite Guy down lest he try to challenge him to another trial right there and Hinata waved at Naruto before disappearing into the collar of her jacket before he could even do anything back. If there hadn't been a strong silence over the room, Sasuke would have pointed out that mingling with the ninja you could potentially be put into direct competition with was probably a bad idea.

"Everyone's here my lord." Genma whispered to Hiruzen, noting the gestures from the jonin who were manning the balcony.

The aged Hokage cleared his throat, before steadying his posture with a surprisingly loose and flexible expression.

"I don't know whether it's humbling or irritating that I'm _still_ here to introduce the tournament stage of the exams, but anyway, welcome, welcome." He mused, with a slight smile.

A slight laughter buzzed through the Konoha jonin teachers who vividly remembered Hiruzen giving a similar speech during their first exams as well. His face drooped, flush with a weariness that would be expected of a man his age.

"God, those few years Minato did it were really something weren't they?"

Another round of laughter ran around the room. Hirzuen's comments, while obviously in jest, were clearly only fueled partly by humor. That much was certain from the clearly stretched smile that he wore.

"Anyway, as the appointed leader of the Leaf Village, I congratulate all of you who have made it this far. It is no easy task, which is clear just from the fact that we're holding preliminaries in the first place. Usually, we skip right ahead to the last stage but too many of you made it through the Forest of Death."

In only a few sentences, his humorous expression had turned to a more serious one.

"I do not mean this lightly when I say the events and interactions of the next two stages will be integral to shaping your outlook as a ninja, more so than _anything _else. I know we have a few teams here who have done high-level missions already, but I speak from experience when I say that nothing you have experienced this far will offer the clarity and experience of battling people who you will grow to consider comrades."

He paused, beady but experienced eyes shooting their gaze over the balcony.

"Friendships will be tested- "

Sakura's eye rolled back towards the other genin for just a second.

"Wills will be proven- "

Lee's fist clenched into itself.

"and lifelong companions will be forged forever."

Naruto and Sasuke both felt a jitter tun through them.

"But the philosophy and trials of the shinobi run far deeper than anything mentioned." He continued.

The room was now quiet enough to here a pin drop.

"It runs deeper than knowledge- "

Shikamaru would've had a reaction if he had been listening.

"It runs deeper than blood- "

Hinata's violet eyes couldn't help but feel another pair of similar ones staring into the back of her head.

"but it runs no deeper than yourself."

Gaara's eyes stayed blankly fixed forward, empty with not even a single care for what the old man was saying.

"The events of the chunin exams are where your ninja way is forged forever. In that sense, they channel the essence of yourself. Your reason for being here, your reason for continuing to live, your reason for fighting. Even a genin who knows not the faintest idea of any of these things will have them illuminated upon the coming months and if they are already truly aware, then their advantage will be fear greater than what you think possible."

He yet again paused, taking one final look over the ninja's in attendance. In no more than a minute, he could tell their perception of him had turned from no more than a sundowning old man to an individual who lived up to the title of "god of shinobi". Afterall, what good was a god if no one believed in him?

"Without further a due, I introduce you to Tokubetsu Jonin and proctor for today's exams, Genma Shiranui, who will run you through the rules of the stage. Good luck and may your will of fire stay burning for years to come."

He quietly exited off the podium, not even reacting to the chorus of applause that followed in his wake.

"He's still got it." Asuma mumbled to himself.

In the meanwhile, Genma took his place on the podium. While by no means nervous or anything of the like, his clear aloofness was a startling contrast when put in comparison to Hiruzen's incredible speaking ability.

"Okay, let's get some basic stuff set up first." He said, not projecting his voice particularly well considering he was attempting to speak to a group of people who were 50 or more feet off the ground and god knows how many meters away from him.

"If you look up center, you'll see the display."

He pointed to a large mechanism that consisted of two large rolling objects that looked like ultra-wide barrels. They were connected to a lever on their outside that were armed by two chunin. With a spin of its respective lever, the barrel-display would rotate and display one of the many genin names that had been written onto it.

"We'll rotate that to decide the who's fighting who. If you look to your right, you'll see Eiga Gazo."

Everyone in the room shot their gaze to the point he was motioning to. A skinny man with what appeared to be dark brown hair waved back, but his general appearance was obscured by the cloth of what appeared to be a very big camera. A very long line of paper trailed out the back of a slot in the machine, clumping up over each other like the hills of a rural country town.

"We're using these exams to experiment with what's called "film". It's kinda like pictures that move. Anyway, he's going to be recording the entire exams block today, just to see if we can get the technology working. If all goes well, you'll be able to request a copy of the tape at the public records. If it doesn't, well…"

Genma paused, not quite sure were his thoughts were going and not wanting to follow them either. He quickly changed the subject with a poor attempt to channel the adrenaline worthy of the announcement he was about to publicize.

"Alright. Let's get this started then." He said with an awkward clap of his hands "I'll run you through the rules. These trials will need to function as a simulation of actual combat, so there's not much off-limits. Battles end by incapacitation or verbal resignation. Any injuries inflicted, no matter how major, are your own responsibility that you allowed by entering the exam. At this point, your team formations are not considered integral to any part of the exam process, so if you decided to forfeit, it will come at no penalty to your team."

Shikamaru suddenly sprung to life, only for Asuma's hand to grab his collar and pull him back into silence.

"However…" Genma continued "Any obvious attempt to mutilate your opponent beyond what would be considered reasonable to win the battle, while not resulting in any immediate disqualification, will subject you to the usual legal amenities that comes with those sorts of actions."

With just the air of confusion that followed his words, Genma realized he hadn't been as direct as he could've been.

"Let me rephrase that: if you kill someone, you go to jail."

They got the message. Genma racked his brain in search of additional rules he needed to establish but ended up coming up blank.

"Alright, let's get this show on the road. The preliminary rounds of the chunin exams officially begin now." He announced, raising an authoritative hand.

An immediate tension coursed through the genin, connecting them like threads to a knitted jumper. Friends looked towards friends with uncertainty, teammates who'd known-

"Shit, we need to get rid of this podium." Genma said, completely declawing the room of any accumulated pressure.

He looked around awkwardly for a few seconds. It was clear he didn't quite know what to do.

"Can we get someone to take care of this?" He asked.

There was no response.

Seconds cumbersomely ticked down as the man stood waiting for an answer before he sighed and took the task upon himself. These painful seconds quickly turned into a minute as Genma dragged the podium across the ground, it's wood base across the stone floor with an irritating creak before eventually stowing it in the back room.

Now, where were we?

Friends looked towards friends with uncertainty, teammates who'd known each other for years started suddenly weighing whether that relationship would survive a beat down and even family members began to feel unease towards each other. Well, two family members in particular felt unease towards a sibling who didn't seem to care in the slightest who he was paired up with. The thick tension only rose as the unmistakable crackling of the first combatant wheel began to spin.

It was strange. The mechanisms in the object were so mechanical, so inhuman, yet they would have a massive ripple down effect on the humanity of each name plastered upon its base. It spun and spun and spun before finally it settled upon a name…

_**Naruto Uzumaki.**_

He immediately gulped while the second wheel began rotating. Pressure began to weigh down against his back, butterflies pacing around his stomach. Surprisingly, he wasn't the only one anticipating the wheels result. Gaara's hands gripped tightly against the barrier, palms clenching with an uncharacteristic anticipation. After a few seconds, the wheels rotation halted and it settled on a name.

_**Kiba Inuzuka. **_

A sharp sigh of relief rolled down Naruto's throat, though he was mindful enough to keep it in inward while Gaara's expression immediately folded back to its same blank gaze.

"Alright, the first chunin exam match-up is Naruto Uzumaki Vs. Kiba Inuzuka." Genma read.

"Oh dude, you are so _fucked!_" Kiba proclaimed, with a confident smile as the two made their way down to the battle ground.

"Yeah, sure…" Naruto waved it off, not really caring for Kiba's bravado.

However, as Genma instructed the two to properly distance themselves in preparation for the oncoming fight, Naruto noticed a glaring handicap against him. That handicap came in the form of small, white canine.

"Oh, _what?!_ How come he gets the dog?" Naruto cried.

Akamaru barked back at him with an insult that he obviously couldn't understand.

"We've identified that the dog is an integral enough part of Mr. Inuzuka's fighting style that it would count as a ninja tool."

"Bullshit! If he's a tool than I'll bring a rhino to my next fight after I get done whipping this bozo's ass." Naruto yelled back, only for his aggression to be matched by Kiba.

"Shut the fuck up Naruto. You're such a loser, you're already making excuses!"

"Oh, I'm a loser?"

"Yep."

"At least I don't need to bring an entire pet-store with me to win a single fight."

"Doesn't matter, still a loser."

"No."

"_Yes_! If there was an organization for only losers, you would be hired first day and then be employee of the month ever single month until you retired!" Kiba barked.

Unfortunately, the road of inane insults was not one he could hope to match Naruto with. In attempting to do so, he had already signed his own death warrant.

"I was actually hired by that place and then fired on my first day, cause I'm not a loser." Naruto countered with ease.

Kiba was left stunned. He had been effortlessly bested at his own game and his features displayed that clearly.

"I…uh, no, that's…no!" He stammered, before Genma put a merciful end to the conversation.

"Alright, shut up both of you. The dog is a tool, now let's get this started."

Both Naruto and Kiba both shook off the mental baggage of the exchange and took their stances, forms sharp with the wait for Genma's signal. The jonin held his hand up, snappy eyes looking both of the two over before he thrust it down as if he was doing a karate chop.

"_Begin!_" He announced, immediately stepping back.

Naruto charged forward, so quick that neither Kiba or Akamaru could properly perceive him in time. He resembled a blurry blob of pure orange until his form suddenly stabilized just a few inches away from his opponent.

"What the- "Kiba announced.

He hadn't expected Naruto to be that fast and judging by the surprise that lingered in the rest of the watching genin, not many of them had either.

_**CRACK!**_

Before he could even properly get his guard up, Naruto's fist slammed into his face with enough force that if this had been at any other time in the battle, it would have certainly ended it outright. Kiba's body flailed across the ground but Naruto's concern was now far away from him. Instead, it was set on Akamaru. The dog growled and lunged at him, but it's small form and middling speed indicated that this was not really a concern. Naruto reached into his pocket, retrieving a small ball of rope before throwing it at the leaping hound. As soon as the rope brushed against his fur, it expanded into a vortex of different strands and tied him up into a ball shape. Akamaru mewled as he landed against the ground, completely tied up. Naruto mouthed an insult back before turning back to the only just recovering Kiba.

"That's not good." Kurenai murmured from the balcony, her scarlet eyes staying analytically running over the situation.

Naruto's hands slapped together, half a dozen shadow clones sprouting south to him. Kiba shook his head around slightly, wondering whether this was a clone jutsu or Naruto had just hit him _that hard_.

The clones charged forward. Kiba had found it difficult to keep up with one Naruto. Even if the clones were all slower, his days already seemed to be numbered and not even a minute had passed since the fight began. The copies ran ahead in a circular formation, boxing the Inuzuka boy into a razor-tight formation that would be inescapable outside of him simply attempting to beat down all the clones. To his credit, he actually managed to partially achieve this as the clones started to drip feed themselves into his immediate vicinity. A quick slash of his sharp fingernails dispersed one before he charged backward into another and sent it to the ground. His sole slammed into the clone's face, dispersing smoke around the crevasse of his foot before he leapt backward and caught another clone with a slick kick.

He didn't even have enough time to breath before a pair of arms clutched around his back and held him up off the ground. A Naruto came dashing forward out of nowhere, harshly kicking him in the face which, thanks to the increased elevation, lead to him hitting the ground harshly. His body bounced off the floor like a ball, only able to recover in time for a duet of clones to begin leading him into the next the phase of the fight. This was also one he was woefully unable to keep up with. The clones spun around him, disorienting the boy to the point that Naruto's elbow strike was able to connect with his jaw unopposed by any counter attack. Kiba tried to scutter up to his feet, but it was no use against the oncoming barrage of offense. Punch, kick, elbow, punch, dropkick and he was nearly out already.

"Well, at least it'll be over quick." Kakashi mused, leaning over the railing with a complete certainty of the outcome.

This came in stark contrast to the rest of the genin who had known Naruto since the Academy. Sure, it was obvious he'd improved since those days, but none of them who were actually invested in their ninja lives could have expected this. From just the way the two were moving, it was clear as day that Kiba was completely outclassed here. Considering their pre-conceived notions about the Uzumaki, it was almost like they were watching their initial prediction of the outcome be completely reversed. Even Naruto himself started to become sure of his victory, but there was one nothing he should've kept in mind. As he sent legions and legions of shadow clones charging into battle, the haze of victory blurred his resolve to the point that it wasn't even really his anymore.

A clone reached into its pocket and brandished a deadly-sharp kunai. Immediately he realized something was wrong. Not even in the farthest reaches of his brain had he suggested the clones need to use weapons now, especially not when he was rolling through Kiba with only taijutsu. Without speed beyond what he thought even capable of himself, the clone rushed forward towards Kiba. It was not going for incapacitation. It was going for the kill.

Light glimmered from the kunai as it sailed through the air, destination dead set on the Inzuka's forehead. His feral eyes only barely managed to snap awake in time and his neck adjusted accordingly. The blade sailed through the air, his movement making the difference between a sore neck and a knife jabbed into his brain. He quickly utilized his newfound position to kick the clone away and get back to his feet. The clone, despite barely taking any damage from his attack, dispersed into a puff of smoke on Naruto's orders.

"Wait, what?" Ino exclaimed, puzzled by why he would give up the strategic advantage so easily.

It was a good question that truly cemented how bizarre his actions had become. Despite having just had complete and utter control of the battle moments ago, Naruto was now sporting the thousand-yard stare that you'd expect out of someone who's loss had just been cemented. There was good reason for this however. Namely, that he was only connected to this reality tangentially at this point. His own vision was set upon a large gate, feet resting on a still sea of water in complete defiance of gravity.

"What the hell are you doing?" Naruto yelled at Kurama, who simply smiled back with a sadistic smugness that was displayed all too clearly on his sparkly white fangs.

"**After Orochimaru loosened our seal, it appears the division between our respective chakra pools has eroded significantly. That means, the more shadow clones you use Uzumaki, the more influence I have over them. That's a very bad thing when you realize that having you branded a murderous demon is very much in my own interest, not so much yours."**

Naruto snarled.

"Oh great, your big plan is to get me to go to jail?"

Kurama curled a claw to himself. There was an elegance and smugness in his movements that was usually reserved for top-level politicians, not nine-tailed demon foxes.

"**Well, I wouldn't mind if that were to happen but for now, I'm just happy to see you how you squirm when the only effective ability you actually know how to use is neutered." **

"You're a fucking asshole." Naruto spat back.

Kurama motioned his claw upwards before clicking twice like he was a sports coach.

"**Eyes up Uzumaki, you can't stay in here all day you know.**"

Naruto grumbled a bunch of words that would probably make him eat a fine if he were to say them in public before he looked down at the water top and reluctantly divided in. The cool fluids of the mind scape enraptured his form before he awoke in the daylight without even a gasp for air.

"Alright asshole, you had some nice moves but it's time to show you why you're still coming in dead last." Kiba growled.

Naruto's mind was still somewhat frazzled by his and Kurama's waterside chat, so he didn't even have time to react to the sharp motion behind him. With tatters of rope still clinging to his fangs, Akamaru _bit _onto his shoulder and proceed to hang on like he was a pair of trousers on a clothes line.

"_**Aah!**_" Naruto cried, surprisingly sharp teeth digging dip into his shoulder. "_Dumb fucking dog!_"

He grabbed Akamaru by the head, tearing him from his shoulder only for Kiba to leap forward and send him flying with a crisp kick. The white pup quickly scampered to his master's side, while Naruto clumsily returned back to his feet. In an instant, the dynamic of the battle had changed.

"Good job Akamaru, now let's go!"

Kiba hunched onto all fours, much like a dog would while Akamaru quickly stowed himself on his back. The boy's rough hands clambered into seals, before weaving together into one final formation. Smoke erupted around them and when it dispersed, there was now two identical Kiba copies standing on-top of each other. Both were grinning animalistically.

"_**Combination Jutsu: Fang Over Fang!" **_

Like two spiraling rockets, both Kiba and Akamaru came shooting out towards Naruto. He tried to run, but the duo seemed to have too much control of their flight path for him to properly out maneuver them for too long. Trails of twisting chakra warped around Naruto, as he dodged through the initial strikes only for the two human bullets to wrap around into the air and launch back towards him with enough calculations behind their path to keep him from properly exiting their range. Naruto weaved around the first one but soon found himself clobbered by the resulting charge. His body rocked against the ground like a ragdoll as a result of the attack while Kiba and "Kiba" landed gracefully against the ground.

"_Uhh…_" Naruto groaned, rubbing his head.

He soon snapped back into action as he clasped his hands into the shadow clone sign. However, he quickly remembered what Kurama had said, so instead of the battalion he planned on summoning, three clones popped out behind him and helped him back to his feet. His eyes darted from the two Kiba's in an attempt to decipher who was who. This proved to be an impossible task at the moment though. Thanks to Kiba's four legs technique, his body perfectly replicated the same motions of a feral dog, thus making him and Akamaru virtually undisguisable to the human eye.

_Their attacks are fast but they don't hit too hard. If I just cause them to separate…_

An idea popped into his head. As the two Kiba's took aim at him again, he reached into his pockets and retrieved an explosive tag before subtly sticking it onto the back of one of his clones. Soon, all four of the Naruto's ran forward against the oncoming tide of the fang over fang. The two untagged clones headed up the front, while Naruto and the tagged clone stayed packed behind them so Akamaru and Kiba would try and take a centered target. This was exactly what they did. Like a tempest of chakra and claws, they tore through the first two clones and sent puffs of smoke flying out in their wake. By this point, there was no time for course correction even if they were to realize Naruto's plan. The tagged clone and the real one spread out slightly, causing the two to follow in pursuit. However, Naruto's clone jumped forward with haste, sinking himself right through the middle of the pair's formation.

_**BOOM!**_

The tag imploded on his back, restrained enough to not harm Kiba or Akamaru but strong enough to send both of them spinning out into the air. With the two now airborne, Naruto took aim at one of them with a volley of shuriken slinked between his knuckles. A quick toss sent them spinning at one of the Kiba's. A majority of them completely whiffed, all except for one who went sailing through the air at his face. A minor cyclone rushed through the blurred blades of the shuriken, its power seeming unstoppable…

_**Clank!**_

Until "Kiba" caught it in his mouth. Sparks fizzled from his teeth, as they crunched down against the metal with enough force to completely dissipate the energy that had been coursing through it just prior.

_Damn it!_ Naruto thought.

He'd been hoping to expose the true Kiba by getting him to catch it in his hands, which Akamaru most likely wouldn't be able to do, even with the transformation justu. Unfortunately, with what he'd just done, there was no way of knowing which had just caught the shuriken. The Kiba clone (who Naruto had begun identifying as Kiba 1) animalistically tossed the shuriken up to the balcony with his mouth. It landed a few steps away from Tenten, who stared at it with a strangely low level of disgust considering it had just been coated in either dog or human saliva.

"Hey, kick it down!" Naruto half-ordered and half-pleaded.

A swift hand rattle from Genma shot this down.

"Any ninja tool that goes out of bounds is considered unretrievable. Kick it down and you're both disqualified." He ordered.

"Oh, that's a bunch of bullshit!" Naruto cried, but his eyes swiftly turned themselves to Kiba.

The Inuzuka had lurched up from his four legs technique, so now he was actually identifiable but too far away for Naruto to risk charging in. He reached into his pocket and took out a small black pill. From those in the audience who were privy to its existence, a small hush murmur of concern ran over them. For Naruto, it just irritated him more.

"What? He gets to have a snack too?!" He growled.

"Not just a snack moron. These are jonin-grade soldier pills. They're made with special herbs that continually replenish chakra and gets your body nice and hot. Even one of these babies can keep me going for longer than it'd take for us all to finish this tournament." He said with a smile before tossing a pill into his mouth and crunching it beneath his teeth.

An immediate change overtook his posture. Even without the aid of the four legs technique, his body became rigid and animalistic, skin tinging red as if it were enflamed. Even the slightest bits of laziness that lingered in his posture had be ironed out thanks to the soldier pill. He tossed one to Akamaru as well, who gulped it down without a moment's hesitation. A few seconds passed, and his fur began to undergo a similarly colored transformation. His mangy white coat suddenly became a sizzling crimson, its palette making it look almost hot to the touch.

"_Now let's get back into it!" _Kiba laughed, his voice rippling with an animalistic undertone of bass that simply wasn't present before.

Sakura looked towards Kakashi with a questioning glance.

"Sensei, you didn't mention we could just pop pills if we wanted to win."

In the meanwhile, Naruto began to feel a little bit less safe now. From Kiba's posture alone, he could guess that the overwhelming stat advantage he'd previously held was now, at the very best, a moot point and at worst, now in Kiba's favor. In times like this, it was hard not to let your mind drift to…certain possibilities…

_**Uzumaki. **_

_Nope._

He shot that down immediately. He'd rather get clobbered here than win looking like a demon. That being said, it was actually very likely he got clobbered here judging by the newfound speed of the fang-over-fang. The twin bullets sped through the air and hit harshly against his chest before he could even react. Kiba 1 and Kiba 2, identities once again mixed, burst out from the ensuing smoke cloud and began to take aim at Naruto from both sides. Thanks to the soldier pill pumping through their veins, every hit was faster, every hit was _harder_. It made Naruto appear as if he was locked in the most painful game of piggy in the middle known to man. His spit flew onto the floor from every blow, welts beginning to well up upon his skin as each and every punch and kick bruised the flesh further. His bright blue eyes were fading, obviously dazed by the constant offensive barrage he was being subjected to.

"_Come on Naruto." _Sakura clapped.

"Hang in there Naruto!" Lee cried, with such fervor he nearly toppled over the railing.

_Come on Naruto!_ Hinata cheered against her teammate, though she didn't dare say it aloud.

Sasuke, despite the fact that Naruto was almost literally having the snot beaten out of him, didn't look particularly concerned. Instead, he simply rested with his hand cupping his cheek. Sakura, looking back from her clapping, noticed this.

"Aren't you gonna say anything?" She asked.

He just laughed.

"He's not going to lose in the first round." Sasuke replied, as if it was an unquestionable truth.

Strangely, reality did not seem to be reflecting this. Naruto was continuing to be punched around in circles and there seemed to be no real hope in him escaping. That was, until an idea was literally punched right into his head. He managed to gather his wits for only a brief second, but that brief second was enough to act upon his instincts. He charged forward, whipping out a kunai and catching one of the Kiba's in a standard kunai hostage tackle. Even with the soldier pills enhanced strength, his technique was far too adept to be broken with brute force alone. He brought the kunai up to the throat of the Kiba, a threatening sheath sound stopping the other in his tracks. See, while Akamaru and Kiba may have been anatomically identical at the current moment, there was one thing that a jutsu like this would be incapable of replicating.

A voice.

His eyes shot towards Genma. They were practically _bursting _with animalistic ferocity.

"_Hey! If the dog's a tool, then there should be no problem with me killing it right?!_" He yelled, a manic energy surging through every solitary word.

A gasp came over the crowd.

"That's pretty smart." Shikamaru murmured.

Genma himself even looked taken aback. That was, for a few seconds before he nodded.

Naruto's eyes locked back onto Kiba.

"Say something and I don't off him." Naruto threatened.

It was absolutely, one-hundred percent an empty threat but even the empties threat was still a threat to Kiba, especially with the adrenaline of the soldier pill weaving its way through his brain. He looked shocked at first, before his face turned into a scowl.

"Fine, I- "

Naruto needed no further incentivization before he reached into his pocket with his free hand and retrieved a smoke bomb. A quick flick of his palm sent it rolling across the stone before it expanded into a mass of smoke. For a few seconds, there seemed to be no motion running from the pile until finally, a coughing Kiba emerged out into the open. Sharp streams of smoke puffed forward from his mouth as he rasped. He was soon followed by another Kiba and then…another Kiba.

It was clear what had happened. Naruto had used a transformation jutsu to transmute himself into a Kiba copy, but it left the three at a standstill. Who knew who was who at this point? If either Akamaru or the real Kiba were to act too quickly, they could end up taking out their partner instead of themselves which would leave Naruto to pick up the scraps. At least this would've been the conundrum had it not been for one thing…

_Sniffle, sniffle…._

Kiba's canine sense of smell. He knew Akamaru's scent like the back of his hand and could easily pick up on it. Also, it wasn't like Naruto was particularly clean anyway and, despite rolling around with the aforementioned dog, he hadn't done much to mask it. A quick pop of Kiba's right hand sent Naruto falling to the ground, smoke dispersing as his true form was revealed. He groaned out in pain, a pain that only intensified as Kiba picked him up by the bridge of his neck and _slammed _him against the wall. It was legitimately a miracle that the stone of the walls didn't crack behind him.

"Nice try, but I can always spot my family. Don't think you can do the same."

Naruto looked up from his pinned position on the wall. Despite the ache of his back, his eyes still coursed with determination. Despite the pressure on his voice, his tone was still unyielding.

He said only five words.

"Damn dude, that's fucked up."

His hands mashed into a sign before a stack of shadow clones ladder the two of them up the wall. However, while Kiba once had all the leverage against Naruto, now he was simply hanging off of a boy who had swiftly welded his feet against the wall with chakra. Naruto stuck a boot out, the force of his kick sending Kiba falling into the arms of Akamaru while clones were quickly dispersed as to medicate any potential Kurama shenanigans. Now was the time for focus. Naruto, on a tired body and with his usual shaky chakra control, kept his feet sharply weighted down against the wall. This was all part of his plan.

See, he wasn't dumb. Well maybe he was, but he wasn't _dumb_. The Kiba clone fake-out had bene an initial ploy, sure, but he'd made sure that the pair's identities stayed logged for further usage. Now, as Kiba and Akamaru geared up for a wall-battle fang-over-fang, he knew them as only Kiba and Akamaru and not Kiba 1 and Kiba 2. This was because, as the smoke had congregated over the area, he'd made a small incision on the held Akamaru's neck. It was tiny, but still very visible to the naked eye.

So, as the two charged at him, fangs drawn and claws sparkling, he knew exactly what to do. Kiba's bullet-like form lunged forward, but it was easily dodged by a quick lean back against the wall and now all that was left was Akamaru. He leapt backward along with the spinning chakra vortex, swiftly grabbing onto it and clutching Akamaru into his arms for the second time. Before the dog could even realize it had been grabbed, Naruto _launched _him upward towards the very top of the balcony. His "Kiba" like form crashed down against the veranda, landing right next to Tenten much like the shuriken from earlier. This meant one thing.

"The dog's out of bounds!" Naruto called.

Akamaru dispersed into his normal form, a barrage of growls and barks raining down upon Naruto. In the meanwhile, Kiba reacted to this reveal with…less than positive results. Those results being that he charged towards Naruto, running along the wall with an animalistic sprint. However, the Uzumaki effortlessly dodged around him. A surprisingly smooth wrist flick meant Naruto grabbed onto his head, before _slamming _it forward against the wall nose first. That grip was swiftly transferred to Kiba's waist, as Naruto positioned himself under the boy but not before casting yet another shadow clone sign.

Whatever Kurama tried to do, it couldn't be much worse than this next attack.

The shadow clones shot out in a row, their extension sending Kiba along for the ride. This meant he was airborne for a short while. This also meant that he was treated to an unpleasant landing as the clones gripped against his legs and slammed him to the ground with a horrifying _**crack! **_No matter the rank of the ninja in attendance, all from jonin to genin to chunin to the proctor himself all collectively winced upon the boy hitting the ground.

"Something broke." Shino idly commented as if he had not just watched his teammate eat shit from such a massive height.

Naruto slunk down to the ground and by this point, Kiba's defeat was all but assured. The coursing power of the soldier pill may have provided enough stamina for him to get up but it was clear from the way his once powerful posture had been neutered that he had little left in him compared to his opponents relatively relaxed stride. He offered nothing in the way of insults. All he did was growl.

The Uzumaki dashed forward, in a way that brought forth a feeling of deja-vu from earlier in the fight. Kiba futilely attempted to slap him away, but Naruto simply rolled past his attack and snatched soldier-pill from his pocket. The grains and nutrients that had been distilled into the pill were crunched beneath Naruto's palm, birthing a pile of unmistakably _fragrant _dust. He threw it into Kiba's face without hesitation, sending the boy's heightened sense of smell alight with a distracting blaze of powder. Now was his chance to strike. He cast a shadow clone, who's first launched into Kiba's chin with enough force to send him flying up into the air.

_Now's the time to do that big move I've been practicing! _

Naruto bunched his hands up, sending dozens of shadow clones running through the air around Kiba. Once more, before Kurama was given a chance to go fight, he leapt from them like lily-pads, bouncing from their chests, shoulders and heads before-

"_Na-ru-to!" _He chanted, soaring above Kiba's dazed form with his leg held high.

"_**Uzumaki barrage!**_"

His foot slammed against the back of Kiba's head and sent him flying down to the ground with enough force that a bundle of smoke erupted around him. Naruto landed a little bit more gracefully, though his guard was still held up should his foe somehow recover from his slumber. A quick check-up from Genma indicated that this was an impossibility.

"Kiba Inuzuka has been knocked unconscious. The winner of this fight is Naruto Uzumaki, who advances to the final stage." He announced to the room, hoisting the losing boy up onto his back.

On one hand, he did feel a little bit bad about how hard he'd hit Kiba at the end there. On the other…_he passed! _With a spring-loaded step, he bounced his way up to the rest of Team 7, who greeted him with equal zeal. Sakura immediately wrapped him up in a hug, squealing in excitement.

"_You did it!_"

Naruto grinned with laughter, an effect that almost managed to worm itself into Sasuke. _Almost_.

"I told you he'd win." Sasuke replied, not even bothering to take his hands out of their cupped position.

He was excited to, but he wasn't just going to let Naruto _know about it_.

"Good work Naruto. Surprisingly intelligent performance up there." Kakashi added.

Even with the mask covering his face, it was clear he was smiling. Naruto looked up at him, a smug smirk gracing his features.

"Well, ya know, it was no big deal." He said, completely devoid of any ego or arrogance that would almost always grace his words.

"It was actually a big deal, because I expected you to get slugged in the head and go down in five minutes." Kakashi replied, clearly attempting to get a rise out of his student.

Judging by the way his face contorted, this worked.

"_What the hell'd you say- "He_ growled.

"Excuse me!"

The sound of Genma's voice boomed across the room and cut any discussion off. He stood at the center of the arena, a sudden authority coursing through his posture.

"The second battle of the chunin exams is about to begin!"


	37. Weapons Stray in the Blossoming Wind

_**Authors Note:**_

_**Experimenting with shorter chapters for the Chunin Exams fights, as I know they can get kind of long and boring stuffing so much in just one. Hope you enjoy. **_

* * *

Zaku's erratic gaze lingered around the area, eyes desperate to try and find his target successfully. It was no use; the entire battle ground was gradually being boxed in by a swarm of loud buzzing insects. Shino's body was all but lost to the fuzz. The boy's hollow arms fired of countless sound blasts, but none were even able to put a dent in the oncoming wave of bugs that surrounded him. He should have never let Shino get so close. Now he couldn't even hit him…

In a flash, Shino emerged from the abyss with little sense of danger on his face. Zaku took aim and fired a sound blast, only for a swarm of different insects to fly forward from Shino's coat and inflate their exoskeletons so that the sound waves drifted array of his form. The bugs were killed instantly (not by the sound blast, but by the act of inflating in the first place), but even their dead bodies proved a decent defense for the Aburama boy. By the time they all dropped to the ground, he shot out covered in a dark cloud of miniature insects. Zaku reloaded quickly, only for a click of his hands to prove more than enough time for his foe to outmaneuver him. By the time he looked back up, Shino was already behind him. The sound boy's arms swirled around, readying to fire…

_**Click. **_

_**Click. **_

Nothing came out. Nothing except a weak vibration.

"You can no longer use your sound. Why? Because in the last few seconds, several of the Kurika insect breed were inserted through your palms. The Kurika can vibrate their bodies with enough collective power to create their own sound waves. Right now, they are vibrating at a low frequency to keep you from utilizing your power to any extent." Shino explained.

Zaku's eyes became jagged, wild with anger and fury. He veered his body back for a retreat, only to find he couldn't move. Looking downward, a collective of small spider creatures had woven an ultra-tight web of what felt like steel around his feet.

"You should look down more." Shino mumbled, before beginning to head for the exit.

For a second, it looked as if he were about to forfeit. Then a rumbling began to emit from Zaku's arms. The rumbling of Kurika increasing their frequency past the point his system could take. He didn't even have a chance to cease his continuing sound blasts before his machine-like arms _**detonated**__. _A gasp rung out around the crowd as Zaku began to harshly writhe on the ground in pain. Shino only continued to walk away. Genma quickly signaled for some of the orbiting ninja in the surrounding area to help the boy with medical attention, while he himself announced the results officially.

"Zaku Onpa has been knocked unconscious. The winner of this fight is Shino Aburame, who advances to the final stage. His opponent is yet to be determined."

The usual process began to play out, the turning of the wheels being spun in search of names. The first was simple.

_**Tenten.**_

The second was less so.

_**Temari of The Desert. **_

"_Alright_!" Tenten sung.

"You're happy about going up?" Sakura asked.

She looked back at her strangely.

"Obviously. Either I win, and don't have to stress for the next few days or get my ass kicked and then it's over." She laughed.

Sakura couldn't fault the logic.

Both Temari and Tenten made their way down to the arena quickly and even in just their initial stances, the divided was clear. Temari's was cerebral and poised with a class and elegance that was to be expected of the daughter of a Kazekage, while Tenten's was loose and unorthodox, even her opponents analytical mind struggling to get a solid read on what she was attempting to impose. Genma tentatively raised his hand before throwing it down and stepping back.

"_Begin!_"

Tenten's hands reached into her pocket with quick-draw speed, fingers gripping along with a bundle of shuriken's. The weapons were soon tossed into the air but not haphazardly. In fact, her aim made sure to account for spread and wind resistance the best she could for. Unfortunately, no matter how the shrunken sailed through the air, they couldn't be prepared for the entirely different _wind resistance_ that was about to meet them. Temari grabbed the large iron block she was carrying on her back and clicked it inward, unveiling a wide and stylish paper fan. Several of the ninja watching immediately realized its usage but it was Shikamaru who did so the first.

_That's a chakra instrument. _He noted.

Temari slashed the fan forward, a sleek wave of wind shooting ahead. As soon as it made the slightest contact with the shuriken, Temari slammed the fan down, tucking the shuriken into the ground like a bed cover running over a young child.

"You've made her move first, now asses her abilites!"

"_**You have got this Tenten**_!"

Lee and Guy's shouting was frenzied and loud enough that they were lucky it didn't throw their intended target off her game. It was for this reason that Sakura didn't join in, but in her place was a surprising party. From her side, Kankuro roused from his obviously boredom-induced stillness, looking over at Sakura with a questioning glance.

"Hey, what's that chicks name?" He asked.

"Tenten." Sakura replied, slightly confused as to why he'd want to know.

Kankuro snapped into action. His barely-above a whisper voice turned fanatically loud, while his chubby hands began to clap together.

"_Fuck her up Tenten!_" He yelled.

If Temari had been less focused, she would have scowled at his comment, but for now, her gaze was razor-fixed on her opponent. She waited patiently; fan ready over her shoulders for Tenten to launch her next attack. Judging by said girl's stillness, she expected this to come soon. Little did she know it was already happening.

Unseen to Temari, Tenten's fingers had unzipped one of her numerous pockets around the back of her maroon trousers. One finger dipped into a packet of ink, coating the tip with it before she traced it back into a loose hanging bit of seal paper. Her hands moved quickly, throwing both the sealing paper as well as a bundle of shuriken and kunai into the forefront of her offense. She moved closer than Temari could even react to, a small smoke cloud wafting through her finger tips before she unleashed a barrage of weapons. Kunai, Shuriken as well as the sealing tag all sailed forward through the air. The Suna girl's reaction was identical to her previous attack.

A wave of wind took sail yet again, scattering the barrage of equipment to the ground. As it did so however, the tag's inner-workings were triggered and, with a small explosion of smoke, it launched three kunai into the air. Their flight patterns were precise and sharp, moving quick enough to almost catch Temari off guard. _Almost_. Her face was washed with shock for no more than a split-second before she snapped back to the fight. She snapped the metal shell of her fan before swiftly reopening it. This sent two rebounding arcs of wind snapping to her side, the kunai being caught in their clutches and sent flying wayward. One in particular was sent soaring up to even the highest reaches of the display.

_**SLINK!**_

With that, the kunai became lodged into the ink of Tenten's name.

"Oh, now that's just rude." Guy hissed, his initial fervor starting to settle down.

His bushy-browed gaze had switched from youthful to analytical, it's focus set entirely on Tenten. It was because of this that he didn't catch Naruto staring at him like he was a mythical creature of some sort.

His eyes bounced around from Guy to Lee and back again with a look that could only be described as _horror_. Had it not been for the flak jacket and regular shaped eyes, Guy would essentially be identical to Lee. Naruto was completely bemused by this, which was funny considering he was more then used to looking at identical copies of himself, but two people with similar haircuts was apparently too much for him to handle.

"You seeing this?" He whispered to his teammates.

It was too much for them to handle either judging by their responses.

"Just don't look at both of them at once." Sasuke advised, making a conscious effort to at least one of Guy and Lee out of his peripheral vision.

In the meanwhile, Tenten was having a similar reaction as her sensei.

"Ya know, that's kinda mean." She mused, one eye staying fixed on Temari while the other lingered upon the display.

Temari nodded back with the smug smirk gracing her lips indicating that she did not really care for the other girls' feelings. Said girl breathed a small sigh before straightening her stance back to one more appropriate for battle. Her analytical eyes traced over the situation.

_I probably can't get close to her with that fan. She'll just blow me as soon as I start to do anything. If I can get her off-guard though-_

She rushed forward, content to formulate the plan as she went. Reaching into one of her many pockets, she picked up another bundle of shuriken, which earnt a loud tsk from Temari.

_So uncreative_ she chided to herself, bracing her fan yet again.

As expected, she was faced with another barrage of oncoming shuriken. They sailed through the air, blades sharp and deep but Temari cared little. Another wind wave would dispose of them as easily as the last. She slung her fan forward and sent ripples of wind fluttering through the air, before they finally cascaded into a roaring tide of flowing wind chakra. However, the rippling through the air disrupted the light and brought a revelation with it. The shuriken were still connected to strings and those strings were wrapped around Tenten's fingers.

"Got ya." She mused, before _yanking _the threads back.

With a quick click, the blades of the shuriken discharged from their binds and flew off in any number of directions. A brief sigh of relief washed over Temari as she watched the blades fly off into the walls, before that sigh was sucked right back into her lungs. Each shuriken blade had a small tab of paper folded over them. If this was what she thought it was-

_**Fwooshfwooshfwooshfwoosh-**_

It was. Each shuriken blade had been encased with a redirection seal, meaning their momentum was now being reversed. With their paths adjusted, the blades bounced from the walls, leaving the tabs stuck in their wake, with their sharpness aimed at Temari.

It was too late for her to try and wrap them up with wind. They were too plentiful, and sharp enough that even one bypassing her defense would be enough to give Tenten a massive advantage. Temari took a step back, realizing she only had around a second before the bouncing blades turned her into a pin cushion. She acted with haste, moving even further back before propping the metal casing of her fan up like a shield _just _before the jagged fragments made contact with her. Now, instead of connecting harshly with her skin, they simply petered onto the ground. However, this was exactly what Tenten wanted.

She raised her arm upward, glueball tucked into her palm like a baseball pitcher before _hurling _it forward against the metal of the fan. The ball exploded into a thick white paste, solidifying against the ground before Temari even had a chance to react. When she did though, she found her fan unable to be retrieved. Now it was forfeit to the grasp of the glue ball. Her eyes widened, only for them to quickly snap shut again as Tenten's boot came crashing into her face. She spiraled to the floor though quickly kipped back up to meet her foe. In the meantime, a hush becoming of the changing battle conditions washed over the crowd.

"Yes Tenten!" Lee cried.

"Oh shit." Kankuro mused.

Gaara was now watching the battle with a slight bit more interest than he had been previously, which wasn't that impressive considering his previous interest had been zero.

Temari darted back, swiftly dodging around Tenten's follow up attacks. Her acrobatic assault of kicks and punches were blocked with poise, though Temari could hardly muster up anything in response. It was clear that Tenten outclassed her heavily when it came to taijutsu, but she realized this as well. She darted back, attempting to try and close the distance between her and the fan, but to no avail. A sharp kick from Tenten left her rocked, before the hair-bunned girl went low and used her legs to force a grip on Temari's own. With this, all she needed to do was twist her body to the side, and Temari faceplanted.

Tenten leapt back up to her feet, legs adjusting for a kick that would surely end the fight only for her target to quickly roll out of harms way. Temari meagerly limped back to her feet, direct physical trauma obviously a foreign concept to her. However, as another barrage of shuriken and kunai was shot her way, her hands weaved together before she thrust out a palm:

"_Wind release: vacuum seal sphere!" _

A ball of hail burst free from her hand, trapping every weapon thrown in its grasp. Temari wasn't satisfied with just covering her defense though. She twisted her wrist slightly, threads of wind crackling under her grasp.

"_Wind release: gale stingers!" _

The wind bubble shot forward, separating into separate bullets while leaving discarded weapons in their wake. While her intentions briefly lay focused upon keeping Temari away from the fan, Tenten was reluctantly forced to dodge out of the way and abandon this advantage. She flipped backwards, the wind bullets descending upon her like bombs. Even the hard-built stone floor was unable to fully hold up under their weight and soon began to seep with cracks from the impact.

Temari realized her advantage quickly, and dashed forward with seals at the ready. Her hand motioned towards the fan and sent a large tempest uprooting it from the glue. The object sailed through the air, before landing neatly in her arms. However, her advantage seemed to be over before it began, as Tenten recomposed herself just a few meters back. She reached into her pocket, excavating _two _scrolls before rolling their extravagant paper lengths over herself. The two rolls of paper fluttered around her, divine and silky in their movements before she looked up, a raging fire lit in her eye. Its heat was so potent, Temari couldn't help but flinch.

"I was hoping on saving this for the finals…" Tenten muttered, before the ink of the paper began to seep into a thick smoke. Its effervescent form fluttered around her hand, birthing a sudden sharpness from behind its cloudy exterior.

_**FWOOSH!**_

"_Weapons art: springtime double blades!" _She shouted, palms clutching down against a set of twin swords.

Their blades were sharp and angled, almost broad-like but much too thin. Their shiny steel edges connected with their well-smelted black hilts, who's jet black grip was intertwined with veins of light grin and pink material. However, despite their imposing presence, Temari did not seem phased in the slightest. She stood elegantly, posture radiating only skill and strategy. The daughter of a Kazekage had no time for trivial things like fear.

Neither Kunoichin seemed willing to make the first move, though for entirely different reasons. Tenten did so as to not immediately get swept away by a tide of wind, whereas Temari was almost trying to goad her into doing exactly that.

Seconds passed.

Then, suddenly, with a flutter of her fan, Temari let loose a precise bundle of soaring wind bullets at her foe. They spiraled through the air, twisting over themselves with layer upon layer of wind chakra. Tenten's eyes widened, before a jolt of instinctive energy caused her to dash forward with blades at the ready. She braced them upward in an attempt to try and slash through the oncoming attacks, but this turned out to be just what Temari had planned. The hilt of her fan slammed into the ground, synchronizing as the twisting wind bullets unfurled into a multi layered cage of pure gale. Tenten's heel dug into the ground so hard she risked sending a bone shooting out of her ankle. Her mind began to furiously run over the situation at hand, but it may have been too late at this point.

The nets of wind simmered with a terseness that was usually reserved for the harshest of storms. Any attempt to simply tank the attacks and she'd be in ribbons, which meant, combined with the ever-limiting options that disappeared as the nets flew closer, she had only one option: disrupt the wind by any means necessary. Her hands gripped the swords close as she leapt upward, ears buzzing as the roaring of the wind bought more and more real estate in them.

_**Slash!**_

The edge of her blade connected with the first. Its sharp steel bristled against the cutting wind, but this was by no means a clash. The sword easily cut through it and that cut functioned much like a cut to a vein. Without a connection to the rest of the wind to help carry the connection, what had previously been a slicing net of pure gust whimpered out into the slight breeze you'd find on a summer's day. Tenten easily danced through the oncoming nets with the acrobatic ability most likely unmatched by any of the other genin watching sans Lee. Her body contorted around itself, dodging through the nets openings while also making new ones with the aid of her twin swords.

"She's quick." Shino commented from the balcony.

As Tenten slammed forward through the final net, she leapt up and thrust her feet down against the very top of the wind obstacle. A gust pushed against her, slicing over the soles of her sandals which, in her mind was a spectacular trade-off for the battle-field advantage. She soared through the air and landed high on the side of the wall. With chakra pumping into her feet and blade in hand, she gently closed one eyelid while squinting with the other. Then she raised her left sword up to Temari as if it were somehow a projectile.

With a quick flick of a button on the hilt, the blades true purpose was revealed.

_**FWOOSH!**_

A small spike stuck out of the swords back while the blade went _shooting _forwards towards Temari. The Suna girl ducked to the side, the swords edge thankfully embedding itself within the wall instead of her face. However, the blade was not just a simple projectile. It was still connected to Tenten's held hilt thanks to a long stretch of elastic that connected them. She stuck the spike in the hilts back into the wall, turning the sword contraption into a makeshift tightrope before beginning to dash forward down it's tight slope. Even with her balance askew, she was quick, almost too quick. Her lithe form bounced along the rope with a speed that risked tripping her up, but she cared little. With her blade at the ready, all she needed to do was make the smallest cut in Temari's fan and it was game over.

But this was not to be.

The Suna girl just flicked her fan slightly shut and thrust it against the wire. A weave of densely packed wind began to crawl forward, coating the tightrope whole. Tenten quickly realized that there was no way she would be able to cut through the wind coating without slicing the tightrope whole as well, so she was left with one choice.

_Jump_.

She leapt to the side, throwing a few shuriken stray while her soles were pumped with raw chakra. Latching onto the wall, Tenten quickly retook her aim at Temari, who's fan was stowed with the shimmering sparks of the shuriken's impact. However, before she could devise anything of note, Temari suddenly slammed the fan into the side of the wall. In the chess game the two had been playing, this seemed like a sacrificial pawn play that consisted of nothing more than intimidation tactics. Little did they know this was the prelude to the checkmate.

The same raspy rush that had accompanied all of Temari's wind attacks prior began to whiz through the air, with Tenten having no idea where it was coming from until she felt it. The paneling her feet were connected onto was suddenly _ripped _out from underneath her, pushing her and the chunk of wall forward like an explosion had just gone off in the room.

"_**Ah**__!_" Tenten screamed, as both her and the piece of wall made _harsh _impact with the floor.

Rocks scattered over her body, the stone partition fully combusting upon hitting the ground. Temari just smirked. She'd used her fan to pulsate wind through the cracks in the wall, with the end result being the sight before her.

"Predictable." She murmured, eyeing the injured Tenten like a predator stalking its prey.

"Tenten, watch out!" Lee cried from the stands.

_She got her good_. Sakura inwardly flinched, while clapping along with the hyperactive bowl-cut boy.

Temari wasted no time with her next move. She flicked the fan outwards before twisting around it with an utter control and poise that almost looked inhuman. In a way, it resembled a dance more than an actual attack, with the slick movement and fluttering of her black gown gradually building up momentum until rushing up to a crescendo as she _**thrust**_the webbing of her fan out forwards. At first there was nothing. Then the sound of a howling wind began to radiate through the air. Strands and threads of oxygen became thick with chakra, welding up into a bundle of air, which only became heavier and more uncontrollable the louder the howls of the gust became. Very soon, the wind chakra had transmuted into a miniature tornado, it's contents ringing with a powerful breeze.

Tenten tried to leap out of the way, but the oncoming tornado was just too fast for her to recover in time. She screamed as its powerful clutches drew her in and began to spin her body around so fast, she started to appear lifeless.

"That's game." Asuma said.

His statement was only proven truer as the tornados form became even _more _jagged and vicious. Tenten was flailed around like a ragdoll with the various wind currents setting in on her body. If she had been able to think straight, it would almost feel as if she were about to be torn into pieces.

Temari marched up to the tornado, locks of blonde hair flowing over her face due to the powerful gust before she _**slammed **_her fan into the ground with force. As if it were a person of its own, the wind complied to her commands and proceeded to toss Tenten's limp body over to her before fully dissipating. She shut her fan tightly and thrusted it to her shoulder, metal exterior shining all the while.

_**WACK**_!

Like a swatter to a fly, she easily sniped Tenten out of the sky with enough force that the overseers on the balcony had to wonder if the girl had a broken bone. At the very least though, she was knocked out, which Genma immediately took note of. He quickly rushed over to Tenten's side, eyes running over the girl's form before he raised a hand up to signal the battles end.

"Tenten has been knocked unconscious. The winner of this fight is Temari of the Desert, who advances to the final stage. Her opponent is yet to be determined."

Temari smiled triumphantly, eyes wandering from the other girl's unconscious form to the balcony as she walked up the staircase with hardly a scratch on her. A swell of pride formed in her throat as she marched up to the top, but just as soon as it had come, it was replaced with irritation.

"_Boo. Boooooooo-_ "Kankuro yelled, hand covering his mouth in a half-hearted attempt to make it look as if he was not the only one doing so.

His glance met Temari's glare, quickly widening in surprise before he lowered his hand.

"Wow, the crowd is just not having you sis." He said.

Temari just scowled at him and walked away. There was nothing worth staying around for here anyway, Kankuro didn't care about her win and Gaara hadn't even acknowledged the fact that she'd made her way back upstairs. His attention was clearly fixated upon _something else_…

In the meanwhile, Sakura watched on in grief as Genma stowed Tenten's lifeless body on his back.

"Is she hurt?" She asked to her teammates, a sad look running through her eye.

Kakashi looked back at her blankly.

"She just got sucked up by a tornado and smashed in the head with a steel rod."

Sakura scowled back, not in the mood for her teacher's antics today.

"_I know that!_" She growled, before recomposing herself. "I mean is she _hurt, _hurt."

Kakashi ran a lazy hand through his hear before responding.

"Probably not. Genma would've called for a transport device if she was." He mused, quelling Sakura's fears for the moment. "Remember Sakura, any ninja with a high-level chunin exam position is better versed in first-aid then most. They're not just gonna let you die unless we need less ninjas for some reason."

Sakura nodded, feeling at least a little bit at ease for now. This caused a gap in conversation that was ready to be filled by one of the other Team 7 ninjas by their side, and considering one of those ninjas could be characterized by their quiet nature, it was obvious who was going to speak up. Naruto looked over to Kakashi, stirring from his docile hoodie fiddling.

"Hey, Kakashi-sensei, you know where we can get water in this place? I'm getting real thirsty."

Kakashi stretched his arm out towards a small door near that lay a little bit away from Naruto.

"There's a cooler down somewhere down the hall there if I remember correctly." He mused, earning a quaint nod from Naruto.

"I'll have one too." Sasuke suddenly murmured.

"Me too, please." Sakura joined in.

"I'll also have one." Kakashi quickly added.

An immediate scowl became worn on Naruto's face as he realized the logistics of the task that had been imposed onto him.

"Wait! How the hell am I supposed to carry four waters?!" He yelled.

"Simple, just make two trips." Kakashi replied like it was the simplest in the world.

"I'm not your errand boy!" Naruto yelled back.

"You shouldn't have volunteered then." Sasuke said from his side.

The logic didn't at all hold up, but the Uchiha clearly just wanted the water.

Naruto's face balled up into a deep scowl, features blistering with rage, before he settled down with a slight pout gracing his lips.

"Okay fine. You'll get your damn water." He growled, stomping off down the hall Kakashi had indicated to.

He fully intended to dump the second cup over Sasuke's head, but this idea soon became forfeit as his attention became focused on _how long this hall was_. Seriously, it was so long you'd end up having to take a second drink just to quench the exhaustion caused by the walk by the time you reached the bubbler. He reached it nevertheless, snatching two plastic cups from the rack and flicking the small white spout open. A trail of cool water proceeded to flow down into the confines of the plastic. Naruto watched it closely for a few seconds, making sure it didn't overflow.

Then, suddenly, there was a presence behind him. In an instant, fight or flight kicked in and Naruto turned sharply on his heel. He was just about to reach into his pocket to take out a kunai when the visual of the person behind him stopped him in his tracks. It was Gaara.

"Hey, what do you want?" He said to the Suna boy.

It was meant to sound annoyed, but instead it came out low and shaky. This was because, even in their limited interactions, Gaara had worn one blank expression and one still posture with absolutely no change. This was not the case here. His face had twisted into what had to be the ugliest smile Naruto had ever seen. It was demented and ugly, with a depth of maturity that seemed oxymoronic to the act of the smile, yet somehow still distinctly childish. _Too _childish. With only a second's worth of eye-contact, Naruto was immediately put off.

"Naruto Uzumaki. I'm _so _excited to meet you!"

He stared back at Gaara like the boy had just confessed plans to kill him and his entire family.

"Uh…what?" Naruto asked.

Gaara's smile deepened.

"The way you have them all fooled, you really are extraordinary _**Nine-Tailed Fox**__." _

Naruto's breath hitched.


	38. Twin Tails and Kindered Kunoichi

_**Important Authors Note:  
**_

**I will be holding a poll on my profile to decide whether the fic should favor shorter chapters like this one or longer chapters like I usually write from now on, so please go vote on that if you consistently read the fic (or if you don't, I just want to get a census). This doesn't mean I will always publish longer or shorter chapters, as my word count scales with the narrative flow and I won't compromise chapters that require a short/long length, but it will decide what I focus on, especially now that we're getting into arcs that really require alot of writing. In general, most "original-fic" development chapters (such as Seashells by The Sea Shore, Pier-To-Peer Navigation and The Many Lives Of Konoha's genin) would stay long, as they are not exciting enough to justify a cliff-hanger, so this poll would more focus on "arc" chapters such as the Orochimaru ones and the fights. Keep in mind, this would not mean you lose any content, just that said content would be spread out across more chapters. _I hope you continue to enjoy Naruto: Relit. _**

* * *

_Nine-tailed fox. _

Naruto's eyes were wide in shock and surprise as he stared down Gaara. The Suna boy's face was distorted with an unsettling smile that's sheer presence caused jolts of fear to spring forth through Naruto's nerves.

"I don't know what you're talking about." Naruto grumbled back, but his shaky tone betrayed any objectivity in his statement.

"There is no need to play dumb with me Naruto! You are the jinchuriki of the nine-tails!"

Gaara clearly meant to speak at room-level, but his excitement got the best of him and each word was turned into something much more akin to a yell. His smile only depended, hands shaking with an inhuman exhilaration.

"But you should not worry, as I _am the jinchuriki of the one-tails!_" He said, practically screaming at this point.

Confusion paired with a slight tinge of fear was suddenly worn on Naruto's face.

"Wait, no, the tailed beasts were killed by- "

"_Kiri! _Yes, I know!" Gaara cut him off, like an overly-enthusiastic child interrupting their teacher. "But they are easy to fool. My father tricked them into thinking we had surrendered our tailed beast when in reality, he just gave them a whore with ink on her stomach. The people of the mist are so _easily fooled_!"

The way he spoke was vulgar and psychotic, yet oddly joyous. Naruto could feel his stomach turning. He needed to get away from this boy and fast.

"What the fuck do you want with me then?" He asked, voice still low.

Suddenly, Gaara's hands rested on his shoulders. He proceeded to enthusiastically rock Naruto back and forth, boney hands trembling with exuberance all the while. There was no doubt in Naruto's mind that this boy was mentally ill.

"_Don't you see?! _With the power of two tailed beasts, we can dispatch all of those who tormented us! All of those who gave us scorn, all of those who looked at us with vitriol and disgust!"

Suddenly, his face twisted into something truly demented. The energy radiating from his features was that of pure, child-like happiness but those same features did not truly represent this feeling. There were no sunny smiles and wonderous gazes. Those were replaced with stretched contortions and sunken slants

"**We can kill them all.**" He said.

Naruto couldn't help but laugh, even in the face of overwhelming murderous intent.

"You've got the wrong guy." He replied.

All the energy from Gaara's face was drained with those words.

"What?" He replied, soft and quick.

"I don't really care about getting revenge and killing people or whatever. I've got friends now, who gives a shit about a couple of dumbasses I don't even know?"

Gaara's face stayed completely blank.

Then it _twisted _with disgust. It was like he was having a panic attack, still posture suddenly getting shaky like a village drunk. For all the courage Naruto had managed to muster previously, he found it increasingly hard to hold onto. His body braced, almost _waiting _for Gaara to snap.

"_No. Nononono…_" He chanted, dark-rimmed eyes gazing downward at the ground while his hands clutched his head.

It was almost like Naruto wasn't even there. Then he flashed a wilting glare up forward, sleep-deprived eyes bleeding out through the slits of his fingers. Somehow, his gaze was alight with a mix of fury yet also pure, distilled boredom.

"I thought it was all for show but you really are a fool, aren't you?" He murmured.

Naruto nervously shrugged back, offering only a meager reply.

"Yeah, I guess."

Silence fell over the hallway.

Then Gaara finally spoke.

"Leave."

That was all he said, but damn if Naruto didn't head it. He speed-ran past the other boy, footsteps echoing down the hall. Maybe he could beat him, maybe he couldn't, but considering Gaara had just admitted a want for cold-blooded murder, Naruto's main goal was to just get out of there as quick as he could. Despite the ever-increasing nagging of his mind, he refused to let the _implications_ of what Gaara had said enter his main train of thought. He couldn't afford to get into that headspace right now, no matter how badly it prickled at the back of his brain.

In the meanwhile, Gaara himself stood very, very still. Despite the fact that Naruto had exited the hallway just seconds ago, his posture was when he was addressing him. His eyes glowered forward at absolutely nothing, but nevertheless he seemed calm. In fact, he seemed _very _calm.

_**FWOOSH!**_

Thick turbines of sand suddenly spewed from his gourd, slashing around the room at inhumanly fast speed. Its sentience was punctuated with a destructive edge, as its grisly grains tore through the walls and even the flooring. Cracks formed in the ground and water spilled from the destroyed cooler as the dozens of sharp sand strands cut through everything in sight. Gaara's eyes stayed focused blankly all the same, but it was clear that his internal fury was getting the best of him. His teeth ground against his lip while his sharp nails clenched into his hands harshly enough to send flecks of blood dripping down his palms. The energy radiated was reminiscent of a toddler's tantrum, yet somehow, the abilities on display were that of a ninja beyond his years.

_**Rustle.**_

Suddenly, Gaara retreated. Not to anywhere in the real world, no, but to his own mind. Sand crunched under his resting body. Opposed to the water-topped ripples of Naruto's mindscape, Gaara's took the form of a large open desert whose bright summer-time sun sent rays of light glimmering down to an endless horizon. This deserted desert sported a monochromatic hue that betrayed its own sunny illusion. No matter how brightly it shone, Gaara found the sand and sky both very very cold.

_**FWOOSH!**_

The grains of sand below his feet began to became rustle around themselves, before exploding into a _massive _storm of dust. Out of nowhere, Gaara was hoisted into the air as the sand below him terraformed into a massive monolith entity. The sand rustled around into a blob before extending outward like a colony of ants, forming an arm shape with which to catch Gaara by the foot. His blank expression did not change.

Soon, this sand creature took on physical characteristics. The shifting grains formed a quasi-skin, which was promptly covered with blue veins of distilled ink. Its eyes sunk into the skin, dying themselves a deep black who's dotted golden pupils served to be the only thing distracting from their mobius abyss. He sported one tail, comprised of the same sand that formed its skin. Despite literally hanging under the grip of what could only be described as a demon, Gaara did not seem even the slightest bit concerned as much as he did unimpressed.

"_**Yikes! **_**You absolutely fumbled that one man!" **It laughed, jeeringly shaking Gaara's form as it did so. "**Kurama's kid was freaking the fuck out!" **

Gaara shot his usual glower back before raising an arm.

_**BOOM!**_

The creature's arm was _blown to pieces_, meaning its grip on Gaara was completely forfeit. The boy sailed to the ground, not even doing so much as slightly moving his body to try and cushion the landing. There was no need. Second before he split his head open against the cool sand, it shot upwards like a water fountain (with the softness of one too). Gaara's falling body was gently caught within the loving grasp of the sand. It softly lowered him onto the ground, almost like a parent would do to their child but it received no affection in response. Instead, Gaara just began to stroll along the desert, not paying the slightest gaze to the rapidly reforming creature behind him.

"Cease your insolence Shukaku. This is not your domain and your pitiful attempts to treat as such do nothing to scare me." He growled to the one-tailed beast.

"**Man, you think I don't know that? I fucking **_**wish **_**this wasn't my domain, you're the lamest Jinchuriki ever." **

Gaara didn't even bother to offer a response. Shuaku sighed at the lack of interaction and began lazily lounging over onto his back, sand crinkling under his immense weight.

"**So, what are you gonna do now? He was supposed to be your main guy, your partner in crime so to speak. The plan doesn't work as good with only one jinchuriki."**

"Attempting to recruit him was a foolish move. No matter the beast inside, his brain is cut from the same jumble of propaganda and idealism as the rest of them."

He turned back to face Shukaku; sleep-rimmed eyes reflecting an endless abyss.

"He wished to lower himself to their level, so I will kill him all the same."

* * *

The stretchy arms of a black-masked man shot forward, elastic and rubbery in a way that betrayed their skin-like tone. Kankuro's chubby form quickly dodged out of the way while Crow darted around them shooting out small darts from its mouth.

_**Misumi Tsurugi **_

_**Kankuro of The Desert **_

Those were the two names that had been rolled by the display. One boy had the ability to turn his limbs and bones into a stretchy rubber while the other controlled a powerful puppet. Light blue chakra strings strings flailed around the arena, each twist of Kankuro's wrist directing the puppet exactly where he wanted it to move. A quick flick of his fingers sent the dolls mouth sliding open before it spewed forth a barrage of lavender-tinted kunai and shuriken. Misumi's spectacled eyes stayed sharp, before he inflated his rubbery body into what almost resembled a rice snake. This served almost as a landing strip for the flying tools, his plastic-like skin absorbing each and every cut and scratch.

"Fool. My chakra control means I have complete control over my bodies positioning. Your chances of hitting anything important are zero."

Despite the fact that Kankuro had just had his attack completely negated, he did not seem all that sad. In fact, he looked smug, a distinct smirk gracing his face.

"Tell me, ya ever heard of _disgre?_" Kankuro replied, the final word dripping off his tongue with a distinct Sunanese accent.

"No." Misumi replied.

Then he felt it. A pulse ran through his body, breaking down it's heavy, inflated foundations. His once imposing form exploded into a flat pile of twisted limbs and flattened body parts, body far too lose to even get back to his feet. At this point, he resembled a trampled piece of paper more than he did a human.

"_What?!_" He growled in pain.

"It's over." Ino mused from the balcony, having recognized the Sunanese word he had spoken.

Kankuro began to walk forward.

"_Disgre_ is a herbal ointment, local to Suna but you can buy it in an import shop."

Now he sounded like he was trying to sell it.

"It's made from _Disgreieay_ plants, which are known for their chakra-disrupting properties. Now, for most people, it's pretty useless as an attack. Either they're not using enough chakra for the disruption to do anything notable, or their using _too much _chakra and it can't take effect properly. However, with you, who's cleanly spreading an even amount of it around their entire body in order to shape it, well…"

His finger twiddled with a chakra string and a compartment on Crow's cheek slid open. Inside sat a small glass jar filled with a lavender liquid, with a small hole at the top that was wired into the puppet. Kankuro gently disconnected the wire, before retrieving the jar and _pouring it onto Misumi's face. _

"It hits the sweet spot."

Misumi cried out in pain as the liquid sizzled against his face. Spots of skin contorted under its touch, twisting, inflating and sinking grotesquely. Kankuro showed little concern for the boy he was practically torturing and shot a look over to Genma.

"It's over, the dudes fucked."

"No, I'm not!" Misumi cried, overly-lanky arms thrashing forward in a futile attempt to try and hit Kankuro.

Even it was only the smallest show of life, Genma was not completely ready to justify stopping the match. For all he knew, Kankuro's poison may have only lasted a tiny amount of time and the Suna boy was just trying to trick him into stopping it. As such, he gave a small shrug back to the pair.

The suave, strategic Kankuro that had just been inhabiting the boy's body immediately died in order to make room for the more vulgar, irritated personality he usually wore.

"_Aw, what_?! The dudes anatomically closer to a puddle than a human at this point!"

Soon, the anger in his face faded into more of an exasperated scowl, as he thrust his hands over the air.

"You know what, fuck this." He mused, grabbing his stretched-out opponent and practically rolling him into a ball.

"What are you-_**Ah!**_" Misumi yelled, as he was thrown into the open torso of Crow.

The Puppets two torso flaps quickly shut again, locking the boy inside before its mechanical form went limp. Dozens of sharp blades discharged from its body, levitating through the air with a slashing sound that made it clear to even Misumi that he was now only seconds away from being trapped on the inside of a pin-cushion.

"You got three seconds to give up before I turn you into a cross-stich" Kankuro commanded.

It took not even a second after he spoke for him to get response.

"_**I give up! I swear, I give up! It's over!**_" Misumi howled, pleas echoing out through the gaps in Crow's body.

"Lame, I didn't even get to do my countdown." Kankuro grumbled, before looking over to Genma.

The man walked forward before raising a decisive hand to signal the fights end.

"Misumi Tsurugi has been knocked unconscious. The winner of this fight is Kankuro Of the Desert, who advances to the final stage. His opponent is yet to be determined."

Misumi was promptly spat out from the clutches of the machine, as Kankuro strode over to the balcony with a smile on his face. A few minutes passed, with the regular cleanup procedure going ahead before Genma motioned for the wheels to be spun yet again. The first rolled around itself, displaying flashes of every name not yet erased before falling on one.

_**Ino Yamanaka**_

"Alright!" The girl exclaimed, a smug smirk gracing her lips as she began to limber up.

The second was promptly spun, before it too finally settled on a name.

_**Sakura Haruno. **_

The stretches Ino had been doing were rendered useless in no more than a few seconds. She and Sakura's gazes locked for a few seconds, each one dripping with both surprise and a twinge of anger. Their thought processes were nevertheless locked in tandem though.

_Out of every single other ninja here…_

Sakura looked over at Ino with distain.

Ino looked over at Sakura with contempt.

_**Why did it have to be her? **_

"The following match-up will be contested between Ino Yamanaka and Sakura Haruno!" Genma instructed.

The two quickly made their way down to the arena floor, each specifically walking either slower or faster to try and keep distance as they did. There was little need for Genma to space them out as they did so entirely by themselves. There was a tension in the air, an invisible magnetic force that kept the two separated with only so much as their shared scorn for the other as a binding agent.

"_Woo! _Go Sakura!" Naruto cheered, Sasuke's claps backing him up.

"_Wooo! You can do it!_" Choji yelled, though Shikamaru and Asuma couldn't help but find his chants incredibly vague.

"Who are you cheering for?" Shikamaru asked.

Choji turned back to him with a big dumb smile.

"Well, if I don't cheer for anyone, maybe they'll _both _think it's for them." He explained back. '

Asuma had to bite down on his cigarette to hold back a laugh.

Both Sakura and Ino were frozen stiff, limbs lying in wait for Genma to give the signal. The Yamanaka girl soon realized however that simply scowling at her rival would do her no good in this fight. She needed to _focus_.

_Focus. _

* * *

"Uncle, why are you a ninja?" She asked.

The smooth forest air blew her long blonde hair into a tangle over her face, the sleek slits of sunset intwining themselves within her golden locks. The man next to her looked outward for a moment, eyes not displaying much of anything before turning to her.

"There's a certain…status that comes with being a ninja."

"Stat-us?" Ino asked.

"Respect." He explained. "If you have that respect, you're able to use it to help people. That's what being a Ninja of Konoha is about."

His eyes now seemed to be even more far off than they had been before, but in a different way. Prior, he seemed to be trapped inside his own head. Now he his outlook seemed to be too wide to properly grasp.

"Too many young people are wearing their headbands in strange ways now, I think. The headband is meant to show other people that you are there to protect them. It has to be displayed _proudly_." He said.

Ino nodded along with him.

* * *

Her hands reached down to her torso, unbuckling her forehead protector. Her unsure hand held it with a slight burst of uncertainty, blue leather dangling with hesitation, before she pulled it upward and wrapped it around her brow.

_Stupid old man. I swear this is the last time- _

This was the last time she was going to evoke him, the last time she was going to wear the mask. Maybe deep down she felt bad about doing this to Sakura, but deep down was _deep down _for a reason. She wanted to reach chunin and the other girl would provide an excellent stepping stone. It wouldn't be the first time.

Sakura noticed the sudden brandishing of the headband and an immediate wave of self-consciousness washed over her. Her hands delicately reached up to her own, strands of pink hair sagging through the grip of her fingertips. For a second, she considered letting her hair fall and displaying the headband as proudly as Ino was. She desperately wanted to, even for just those few moments…

But she couldn't.

* * *

Sakuras tiny, tired fingers gently peeled back the pages of the book, wide eyes enraptured in its childish writings. It was late at night and the lights of the Haruno household had been cut completely save for one room. She could barely even see her own hands at this point, much less the writing of the book, but she dared not move. The warring sounds of her parent's voices echoed from the kitchen, each screaming with such volume, she could swear she felt the walls shake.

"_Take that fucking headband off right now!" _Her mother screamed.

"_This headband was given to my unit by our commanding officer, as a symbol of our comradery in the war! This is something you don't understand 'cause __**you don't have any friends!**_" Her father childishly screamed back.

"_And I guess that makes you a patriot?"_

"_Fuck yes it does." _

"_I can't believe you're legitimately proud of being an imperialist pig!"_

"_Yeah? Well suck it up sweet heart, because this "imperialist pig" is the only reason you're not still stuck sucking off sleazy Kiri guys for 500 ryo!" _

Sakura did not know what most of the words screamed meant. All she knew was that her parents were fighting.

Suddenly, a pounding bundle of footsteps began to overrule the sound. Considering their intentional weight, she guessed it was her mothers. Slivers of light illuminated the woman's form as she stomped out from the room, posture jagged and on-edge.

Was she…crying?

Sakura didn't have much time to find out, as Yuamochi stuck her head around the room and let loose one final insult back at her husband.

"_**You're such a fucking asshole when you're drunk!" **_She _screamed_, before stomping forward up the stairs.

Sakura may as well have not even been in the room, as her mother nearly steamrolled through her on her way to the stairs. She didn't know what drunk meant, but usually, when her mother said it, her father began walking and acting a lot stranger. As if to reinforce this in her mind, seconds later, her father stumbled into the room, not satisfied with the arguments end. His maddened eyes were slightly-dilated with a fury that could only possibly be fueled by a steady stream of alcohol.

"_Yuamochi_! Fucking bitch get…"

Those same angered eyes immediately widened when they saw Sakura.

"Oh shit. Blossom, the fuck are you doing up?" He asked, drunk brain proving unable to filter his language.

"Reading." She groaned back, rubbing her sleepy eyes.

"Well we should- "

At first, it looked as if he was going to take her into bed but all reason in his mind quickly became forfeit to the abyss of alcohol.

"You know what blossom? Fuck it, history lesson. _Konoha is the greatest fucking country in the world._ Seriously, you try and fuck with us? _**Bam**_! Fucking dead, fucking dead is what they are." He leaned over, the smell of booze radiating from his breath. "Look, you see this headband, this headband is a symbol of the fact that in war, ya know, the most important thing to a countries success, we fucking rule every other- "

"_Oh great, now you go and indoctrinate her too you little Tobirama sycophant." _Her mothers voice boomed from upstairs.

In just a second, her fathers vengeful gaze returned.

"_**I will fucking kill you bitch!" **_

Sakura went to bed that night very confused.

* * *

Sakura looked up at Ino with not the slightest hint of fear in her eyes. Her hands drifted downward and gripped at a kunai knife.

"What the hell?" Shikamaru murmured.

_**Slice!**_

With one swift flick of her wrist, she sent the sharp blade of the knife cutting through her rosy locks. The metal of the headband clacked against the stone of the floor as it spiraled down in a mess of pink hair and red leather. Sakura reached down, grasping the headbands hilt in her hand before looking up to the balcony.

"Sasuke." She beckoned, not the slightest hint of a stutter in her voice.

She tossed the headband up to him, his quick reflexes ensuring he caught it. With that, Sakura turned back to Ino. No matter how hard she was trying to hide it, the other girl's face now appeared shaken. Whether it was from the perceived disrespect or something else was impossible to tell. Anyway, you sliced it though, it was the polar opposite of Sakura's own.

Her teal eyes were slick with focus, forehead and face fully rid of the obstruction of her bangs. The hair that had once nearly consumed her face had been sliced into a sleek, if messy, shorter cut. Her posture was free from even the slightest jitters, with the reactions of the crowd occupying exactly zero-percent of her range of focus. No one could phase her now.

_**Oh. My. God. That was legitimately the dumbest thing I've ever seen! You can't be serious with that, what did it even mean? I mean-**_

No one.

_**Hey! Are you even listening to me? Earth to Sakura, EARTH TO SAKURA-**_

_No one_.

There was no divine intervention, or early onset attack that could give Sakura an advantage to the extent that this simple action had. That was because, even if the two didn't know it yet, there was now an incredibly wide, almost cataclysmic divide between two ninjas who uninformed spectators may have written off as far too similar just moments before. Ino was fighting for the status needed to save people and represent the village as a clan heir, a goal that was so expansive and looming, the personability of it risked being lost completely.

Sakura was fighting for Sakura.

A quick thrash of Genma's hands set this divide in place.

"_Begin!" _


	39. From Petal to Blossom

"Those clothes are _so _fobby Sakura. What'd you pick them out of a dumpster or something?"

Sakura trudged along; school books stashed tightly under her arm. Her teal eyes stayed squarely focused ahead of her in a sad attempt to retract her mind from the two girls who were following her. She didn't know their names, she didn't much care to learn, but they were clearly in the grade above her. One had curly brown locks and an orange dress while the other sported short chestnut hair paired with a violet top and jeans.

"She probably did. I mean, she doesn't even have a clan name or anything." The short-haired girl laughed.

Sakura's eyes clenched.

Don't engage.

"Figures. You can always tell with street-rats."

_Don't engage. _

"I mean, I heard her dad's a missing nin now so- "

Sakura's head snapped to the pair with a furious gaze.

"_**No he's not!" **_

Her body motions were rigid enough that they frightened the two into a defensive stance, but that only made things worse. The girl in the orange dress was significantly taller than her, as well as being more skilled on account of being in the grade above. Her arm jutted forward, gripping Sakura's shoulder and pushing her onto the ground with a thud.

"_Ah!_" Sakura mewled as she hit the ground.

"Hey, back off- "The short-haired girl seemed set to launch into a tirade before the whipping wind of a whistle became flush within their ears.

"_**Hey! What are you guy's doing?!" **_

The girl in the orange dress groaned at the interruption.

"It's after school hours. Does this bitch ever go off duty?"

Sakura, still shaky from being tossed to the floor, tilted her aching head around to see a girl her age glaring back at the two girls. Her eyes were stern yet confident, basically the polar opposite of Sakura's own. The short-haired girl snarled at her presence. However, though the aggressiveness in her actions was not lost, both were now looking far less ready to get physical.

"What's going on here?" The blonde-haired girl asked, stern glare worn on her face.

"Fuck off Ino." The orange-dressed girl said,

"You first." Ino spat back.

There was a moment of tense silence before the pair of girls did exactly that, taking off down the streets grumbling to themselves. Sakura felt her fear drain as they let, but not her pain. The way she'd landed had birthed a scrape on her lower leg and she couldn't go back to the academy to get a bandage now.

Then, suddenly, a hand shot out in front of her face. Ino's once-stern eyes were now compassionate and caring.

"Are you okay?"

* * *

Sakura's leg clashed with Ino's fist as the two collided in combat. With surprising speed, she used Ino's grip on her one leg to lock the girl in place before sliding her other into a sweep kick. Ino fell to the floor, eyes widening as she was caught off-guard. She rolled to the side, _just _managing to get out of the way of Sakura's ensuing stomp, before awkwardly getting back to her feet. The process of recovery was so hasty that it immediately gave Sakura another opportunity to go onto the attack.

She retrieved her kunai and slung it forwards, the blade making a shallow cut against Ino's cheek. It moved so fast that Ino only realized this by the time the blood had already began to trail down to her shoulder, which, coincidentally, was where Sakura's next slash seemed poised to land. However, in an excellent display of positioning and awareness, Ino jumped backwards with enough force to bump against the inside of Sakura's arm and knock the attack off-course. This gave her the opportunity to brandish her own blade, as Sakura readjusted her own.

Ino lounged forward, kunai so sharp it was practically cutting through the wind. However, all her momentum came crawling to a standstill as Sakura's own lashed forward. The two blades connected with a clinking sound. There shared energy sent both reeling back, but only one was able to immediately recover. Before Ino could even hope to salvage any efficiency in her grip, Sakura's own blade came shooting forward yet again. What followed was a clash of duality that the Yamanaka was not prepared to win. Her shallow defenses could only barely hold against Sakura's proficient slices, with her arms moving so fast that Ino had trouble even seeing them.

By the time she managed to effectively kick her foe out of range, a clear look of shock had crawled onto her face. There was one thought running through her mind now, clouding her strategies and making the other girls attacks seem all the more powerful.

_She's not supposed to be this fast_.

* * *

"Come on, keep up Sakura!" Ino scolded, as the two young girls made their way through the woods.

Whereas the Yamanaka girl hadn't even done as much as break a sweat in the cool woodland air, her friend seemed to be struggling with even the most benign of movement. Sakura had never been particularly athletic, and this was just an extension of that. She scurried over the stray tree roots; book-bag slung loosely over her should as her sandals scampered through the thick dirt.

"Sorry." She grumbled.

Upon seeing her trip over once more, Ino extended a hand outward and helped her up the final stretch of elevation.

The woodlands were quiet today, any room for ambience being filled with the chirping of birds and running of the river. It was like the two girls had inherited their only little pocket world, one lush with nature and greenery. They walked onward, footsteps sending tiny avalanches of dirt and grime sailing to the top of the riverbank.

"Hey, did you study for that chakra test tomorrow?" Ino asked, long hanging purple dress flowing in the cool breeze.

"Oh, yeah! Here's what I wrote."

Sakura reached into the book bag and passed Ino a piece of paper. Its page had been filled to the brim with different equations and reminders, though as her eyes gazed down it's contents, she noticed the quality deteriorate. Sakura's silky-smooth penmanship became lost, as the inky swirls of her writing were replaced with a grainy rash of black that barely formed letters properly.

"What happened here?" She laughed, pointing to the streaks of black.

Sakura's face became flush with embarrassment.

"My pen started to fade so I had to use some charcoal from the fireplace." She said.

Ino raised an eyebrow.

"Couldn't you just buy a new pen?"

Sakura stayed quiet.

* * *

The two kunai clashed yet again, their blades clanging together with a metallic reverb. Sakura's slashed were significantly stronger, but that may have been working against her more than it was helping her. She charged forward only for Ino to lie back slightly and sent her hurtling to the floor. The kunai made contact and the resulting pressure sent it bouncing out of her hands.

Ino moved in with her own blade at the ready, but Sakura was able to recover quick enough to nudge the knife free from her grasp. However, a kunai-based assault was never Ino's intention. Instead, her heel collided with Sakura's face in an elegant kick. As she swayed back, two more harshly aimed boots connected with her skull, their strength lifting her up straight and then assaulting her mid-section. With one final surge of momentum, Ino spun backwards and infused her body with a cyclone-like rotational energy. This manifested in one final kick that was hard enough to send Sakura flying back along the ground.

"_Damn._" Naruto growled, as his teammate fell to the ground with a scream of pain.

Shikamaru clapped awkwardly, not caring enough to even time them properly. Choji and him both watched on with certainty that Ino was going to prevail, Choji because he was too stupid to watch critically and Shikamaru because he was indifferent to the fight. In the meanwhile, though, their sensei watched on with a more inquisitive eye. While Ino had just unleashed a barrage of well-timed attacks on her opponent, this showing had only caused Asuna to now question her chances of winning even further.

_They look nice, but she's far too short for those kicks too land properly. What she needs to do is focus on basic attacks but between technique and speed…she might actually be outclassed here. _

An almost sadistic smile broke out on Ino's lips as she stalked Sakura's body. Any of the strategical thinking that had given her the slight upper-hand was now completely eroded in favor of the high-like ecstasy that the same upper-hand gave her. If she had struck quickly, there would be no question in her control, but her pointless posturing gave Sakura more than enough time to start formulating a plan in her head. As Ino approached for her next attack, the girl underneath her's motivation surged.

_I'm not gonna let you use me as a stepping stone… _

Ino raised her leg in what looked like axe-kick, ready to jam her heel into Sakura's grounded head. However, as the kick roared through the air, Sakura burst to life. She grabbed Ino's leg mid-air, suspending her foe with only one foot on the ground to stabilize her.

_Not again!_

Sakura threw Ino's leg backwards, sending her faceplanting into the stone floor. Her face bounced off, blunt-force trauma running through it and forcing a hand to her face. Before her vision could even fuse together properly, Sakura _**rammed **_her elbow into the side of her head. The clunk of bone meeting skull rung out loud and clear, with a collective wince running over the crowd. There was so much force behind the blow that Sakura sent _herself_ falling to the ground along with Ino. From there, she stumbled back to her feet and attempted to attack Ino while she was down, but the Yamanaka's instincts kicked in to fast.

Her leg shot up with a surprisingly crisp kick considering she'd just been a touch of force away from being decapitated. However, with her superior positioning and non-elbowed skull, Sakura already had the move read seconds before Ino could move. Her red dress fluttered in the air as she leapt over Ino's body.

The Yamanka girl snapped upright, jutting her hands out in a diamond shape as she prepared to launch her body-possession. Before she could however, an awful snapping sound rung out from underneath her. Her eyes looked down to notice Sakura had dropped a small metal hexagon-shaped box onto her lap.

_A Wire trap?!_

Suddenly, a blossom of thin but unmistakably powerful wires shot outward into her hand, running themselves around her fingers. It didn't do much in terms of pain, but that was far from the trap's intention. Thanks to the way the wires had entangled her digits, she was now unable to properly formulate the connected chakra pathways needed to summon a mind avatar and possess her foe. Sakura had known about Ino's prized technique and correctly predicted the girl's strategy from the get-go. She was going to posses her body and use it to say that she gave up. Sakura wasn't ready to let that happen.

She charged forward, the hems of her red dress flapping as they tried to keep up with her. However, before she could attack Ino, the Yamanka girl rolled forwards, extending the wires of the trap like a measuring tape. Using this unexpected burst of agility, Ino thrust her hands to ths side. and wrapped Sakura's still moving feet up with the rest of the wires.

"_Ah!_" Sakura exclaimed, as she tripped over herself.

Ino used the released pressure of the wires to slip herself out of its confines but she couldn't find the energy needed to keep the attack up on Sakura. Instead, she stood up and began to back away, desperately trying to regain as much stamina as she could before Sakura slipped herself out of the wire's clutches.

* * *

Sakura nervously munched on her sandwich, its stale bread crunching beneath her teeth. Ino was rattling on about something, but she wasn't listening. All the other girls' words were met with only the audience of the looming tree they were sitting under. Sakura's gaze was far away now, focused on the black-haired boy who seemed to be situated at the very edge of the schoolyard.

"Hey, are you even listening?" The Yamanaka asked, pouting.

Sakura suddenly snapped back to reality, the action in itself answering the question.

"Yes!" She tried to lie.

"Are not, you're stuck looking at _him_."

Now Ino's eyes were looking over at Sasuke too though they were far from the same dreamy gaze Sakura had been sporting. Instead, they were prejudiced and filled with distain. This was even despite the well-known circumstances of Sasuke's hiatus and now return to the Academy.

"Seriously Sakura, he's an Uchiha. Even crushing on Naruto or Kiba would probably be less embarrassing."

"What do you mean he's an Uchiha?" Sakura replied.

It was a genuine question and one that displayed the class dynamic between the two girls. Sakura's poor upbringing meant the stereotypes of different clans was entirely foreign to her whereas Ino had been regaled with them constantly.

"He's getting sympathy now, but my uncle says their all total wackos. It just runs in their blood."

"_Ino! _That's an awful thing to say!" Sakura replied.

Ino's face immediately became defensive.

"It's the truth! I mean, why else do you think his brother went all- "

She bit her tongue to avoid saying something that could net her a suspension.

"Anyway, just stay away from him okay? Nothing goods gonna come from you being friends with an Uchiha."

Sakura briefly flashed a looming look back to Sasuke before turning to Ino with a nod. It wasn't like she ever had a shot with him anyway. She was a complete popularity vacuum, so much so that Ino had even begun copping insults for being friends with her, whereas Sasuke's social standing had spiked ever since he returned to class. There was no way he'd ever want to be friends with someone like her unless it was some sort of twisted joke.

That was her thesis, at least. Little did she know that the person who would end up being the one using her as a trampoline to higher status was currently sitting no more than a few inches away from her. A few months later, Ino would show up to school with a new look, one that looked a far departure from her previous traditional get-up. A friendship that Sakura had once considered her only real one, was severed in only a day, and for reasons she could never figure out. The only thing she'd managed to get from the horse's mouth itself was that Ino couldn't have "someone like her" putting a rock on her popularity.

Sakura was distraught for a few weeks, but upon seeing how much Ino had changed, she started to feel that they both had lost something. Ino's distinct bossiness blazed out in brief flickers, but was usually extinguished as soon as it had come with a catty indifference to anyone except herself. Her previously ultra-sharp moral compass had withered away into something that closer resembled a roulette wheel. Her previous disdain for the "violent and creepy" Uchiha clan faded into an overly-dedicated infatuation that seemed to directly correlate with the newfound respect and status Sasuke had gained. To tell the truth, Sakura sometimes didn't even recognize Ino as Ino anymore.

However, it was days like this, when class was finished and Sakura was stuck in her cramped little room that she began to think back. She wondered what had happened to make Ino change. She wondered how someone so strict and moral could devolve into a popularity-obsessed monster in such little time. Maybe that's just how people were. Maybe _she_ was the problem. Maybe-

"_Sakura!" _Her mother voice echoed out from downstairs.

"Yeah?" She called back, so half-hearted that her words barely managed to resonate all the way down the house.

"_Can you get down her and help me with dinner?" _

"Coming!"

Sakura stood up of her bed and made her way through the house. It wasn't good to get so far in your own head.

At least, that's what she told herself.

* * *

Sakura's slick grip threw three shuriken forward, each one imbued with a slight bit more force than intended. They sailed through the air, sharp and strict in their patterns, but Ino was prepared. She charged forward, _ripping _the forehead protector free from her temple and wrapping it around her hand. Raising it up, she used it as a guard and sent the stars of metal falling to the wayside as they bounced off the protector's metal guard. Before Sakura could effectively react, Ino _smashed _her hand into her face with a metal-aided punch.

The taste of steel echoed through Sakura's mouth as she faltered to the ground. Before Ino could muster a follow up blow though, she reached into her pocket and retrieved a double-sided glue tag. As Ino slammed her hand forward, Sakura ducked out of the way with her hands outstretched. She was skillful enough to seal the glue tag against the metallic edge, meaning that when Ino's attack met the ground instead of her, the headband became stuck to the ground.

"_Huh?!_" Ino exclaimed.

It was quite ironic how the ultra-cheap glue tag managed to effectively neutralize the storied legacy and rich material of the headband. Ino desperately tried to yank it up off the ground but her attempts were met with a complete resistance from the ground. Before she could even get the slightest bit of lee-way, Sakura's foot came shooting into the side of her head and sent her spiraling across the ground.

"_Good work Sakura! _That was really smart!" Naruto cheered from the balcony, with Sasuke's claps adding a backing-track of support.

"Watch out Ino!" Choji cried, which was advice that would have been more useful had Ino not just been kicked in the head.

She grunted in pain, standing back up to her feet with the obvious toll of Sakura's many blows beginning to ware down on her body. Unfortunately, judging by her foes posture, this problem was purely specific to herself.

_If I could just trap her with my mind-possession, I could use her own body to give up but she's way too fast for me to hit it just like that. If I could just trap her or something…_

Ino reached into her pockets.

_**That's it. **_

Before Sakura could begin her counterattack, Ino reached into her pockets and took out a handful of round brown seeds. She tossed them outward at Sakura, who, unknowing of their true origin, dodged out of the way instinctively. Ino's hands moved quickly, clasping together in seals.

"_Water release: early harvest!_" She shouted.

The seeds seemed to become suddenly sentient, shaking around on the ground before, in an instant, they shed their brown shells. Elegant purple flowers with orange highlights gracing their petals sprouted from the seeds, becoming full and lush in a matter of moments. A thick purple mist began to seep forth from the confines of their petals.

"Kakashi, what are those?" Sasuke asked.

"Kisuit Plants, a Kiri-native flower that releases an incredibly flammable gas. Harmless in the wild as they grow in small numbers but with the amount Ino's just grown…"

"_Sakura, watch out!" _Naruto yelled from the stands.

Ino reached into her pockets, retrieving a kunai with an explosive tag connected to it. She had to move quickly. If the smog covered too much of the area, she'd be caught in the resulting reaction.

Sakura slammed her hands down against the ground, stone of the floor terraforming under her grasp.

"Earth release: pebble hail!"

The jagged rocks shot forward, only for Ino to charge forward. She raised her kunai to the oncoming barrage, the blade scraping against the stone and sending the rocks out of the way. With slick click of her fingers, the edge of the tag ignited, its flame reflected in her analytical eyes.

Sakura may not have realized the true intentions of the smoke earlier, but it had definitely clicked upon seeing the tag strapped to the kunai. She ran backwards towards the wall, hoping desperately to outrun Ino's throw. Speaking of which, the Yamanaka _tossed _the blade forward, it's sharpness shining with the reflected heat of the tag before it finally touched against the thick haze of purple. All it needed was a second for the accumulate gas to transform into a storm of flame and combustion. Sakura felt the embers sizzle behind her as she ran up the wall, it's strength and force nearly enough to blow her off. Nevertheless, she stayed strong, gritting her teeth as she continued to pump chakra into her feet.

When she finally reached a safe-enough height, she turned to face the explosion, only to find most of it had evaporated into a hot steamy smoke. Its thickness obscured a majority of the ground's contents to her. Sakura squinted to try and get a better look, only for her eyes to quickly widen again as a small glass jar came flying through the smoke. Her hands stuck out to try and grab it from the air, but it was far too low for her to have a chance of grabbing it. The jar smashed underneath her feet, sending glass shards falling to the floor, but more importantly, coating the surface underneath her in a smooth _Disgre_ solution.

Almost immediately, she felt her grip on the wall start to be ripped away. Before she could properly react to the coating underneath her, she was already falling.

"_Ah!_" She cried, body falling through the thick wall of smoke and landing hard against the ground.

A gasp came over the observers. Sakura looked up, only for what she saw to make her heart stop.

"Got ya." Ino said, hands already adjusted into the diamond shape.

Sakura's mind ran into overdrive. She had about three seconds until Ino entered her mind and presumably made her give up. What could she do?

The sound of a glue-tag being torn over itself rung through the air, but it was not fast enough.

"_Mind possession jutsu!_" Ino screamed, firing her invisible mind avatar forward.

And with that, she took control of Sakura's brain.

* * *

Ino Yamanaka sat down in front of the mirror. The sun of the late afternoon crawled through her bedroom window, but even as it bathed her body in a bright shade of amber, Ino paid no attention to it. Her normally pony-tailed hair now ran messily over her face. The mirror showed the absolute reflection of reality, but despite this, Ino looked at it as if she were desperate to find something else. For nearly half a minute, she sat there, looking over herself and only herself before her mind finally reacted.

_Who even are you? _

* * *

With a jolt of energy running through her bright blue spirit avatar, Ino snapped awake into Sakura's mindscape. Now all she needed to do was snatch control of her foes neurological functions and she'd be set.

Her surroundings seemed to take the form of cramped hallway, various books and clothes scattered messily across the ground. From what she could remember of her time meeting the other girl at her house, this was the entrance hallway in Sakura's home. Her interest temporarily stunned her into stillness. It was impressive, in all the other minds she'd occupied (Shikamaru, Choji, Asuna, even Sakura's own during the written exam), none had been focused enough to construct anything outside of abstract thought. Sakura must have had a super vivid imagination for her initial mindscape to look anything like this.

As quickly as she'd stopped to admire it though, Ino quickly snapped back to reality (or, whatever substituted reality in this realm of thinking). It wasn't a good idea to stay in a person's mind for too long, her father always reminded her. She steadied her gaze and looked forwards. The door that would normally serve as the rooms entrance hung open, a blinding white light spilling forth through its edges. This was the in-point.

Ino began to trudge forwards, but as soon as she moved, a wave of existential horror washed over her shoulders.

_Huh? _She thought

Loneliness, self-consciousness, inadequacy, fear, hope, admiration. She wasn't feeling any of these herself, but for some reason they had been _jammed _into her brain and turned the mobility of her legs into that of a statue.

_Don't go._

_Please._

_Please don't go. _

_Don't go. _

Whispers ran through the air, somehow so quiet Ino struggled to hear them yet so loud that every word was shoved the very forefront of her mind. She needed to move and move quickly. However, before she could do so, she felt a weight grabbing onto her leg.

"Please don't go."

She looked down, only to find Sakura hanging onto her leg. This was not the Sakura of the present though, this Sakura was young, younger than Ino could ever remember her being. Tears streaked down her cheeks, as she clung onto Ino's leg with a strength of a person twice her age.

"_Don't go dad, __**please**__!" _She screamed.

It was at this point that Ino strongly considered ejecting herself from Sakura's mind and throwing the match all together, but eventually, she managed to regain her composure. Even with the existential influx of feelings crawling down her back as well as the wailing girl clinging onto her arm, she charged forward, mentally trying to block out the hushed voices that permeated the room. Even if it was only the weight of what appeared to be a six-year-old, Ino nearly toppled over herself several times, but her determination was unyielding. With one final stretch of adrenaline pumping through her body, she charged into the white door.

There was nothing.

There was nothing.

And then there was something.

With a flash of light, Ino found her vision regained. She was staring forward at her own limp body.

_Yes! It worked!_

There seemed to have been an aura of confusion within the crowd, as they watched the two girls suddenly come to a standstill.

"Hey, what the hell are they doing down there?" Naruto asked.

Genma shared this confusion.

"Hey, one of you two respond." He ordered.

He was met with a raised hand from "Sakura".

While the confusion and uncertainty continued to linger within most of the ninja, there were exceptions, namely team 10. Whereas every other shinobi in the arena had clouded ideas and misconceptions, Choji, Shikamaru and Asuna shared one collective train of thought.

_**She's got her.**_

Ino recognized it too. Using Sakura's face to sport a devilish smile, she looked up at Genma.

_Chunin here I come, dumb billboard-brow bitch didn't even know what hit her! I can't wait to see what her reaction is when she learns that she herself said-_

Sakura's lips moved, practically salivating with desperation. Here it came-

"_**Ey fwiitwrw" **_

Sound came from her mouth, but it was far from the lavishly pronounced words Ino wished to utter. Instead, it was a bundle of gibberish that only furthered Genma's confusion, instead of ending it. It was in that moment Ino realized what the problem was. In the tiny, three-second window Sakura had had to react to the mind-possession, she'd stuck her lips together with a glute tag. Panic rushed through Ino's mind, and technically Sakura's body. Even with her grip on her foe's neurological functions, her own emotions had been set out of order and the clutches of Sakura's own slumbering subconscious was now grabbing at her yet again. Ino moved her hands through Sakura's pockets, trying desperately to find a kunai or a shuriken, only to come up completely empty.

Had it been anyone else, she'd have enough time to recover and seek out a kunai or shuriken from the floor, but her grip on the mindscape was already slipping. The more panicked she got, the less control she had and the less control she had, the more panicked she got. Ino was now fighting a battle she had no chance of winning. She made one last desperate dash forward to try and recover a stabbing tool from her own body, but control of Sakura's legs was taken back before she could even hope to get close enough to grab something.

_How is she-_

Ino felt the grip on her back becoming stronger and stronger. This was no run of the mill chakra depletion or mind time-out. There was something in Sakura that was actively fighting against her jutsu and unfortunately for her, it was far more powerful than said jutsu. Before she knew it, Ino was _ripped _back into the mindscape, form yet again taking the light blue spirit color.

She blinked twice, to gather her surroundings.

She was…falling. Falling through an endless black void. The shiny white light of her entry point was so very far away now, and gravity was actively pushing her away from it. It looked like a lone star illuminating the night-sky, except, much like a child, Ino fruitlessly tried to reach out and grab it from the air. If she could just-

_**You're awful. **_

_**You're ugly.**_

_**You're stupid.**_

_**No one likes you.**_

_**They don't like you. **_

_**He doesn't like you**_

_**He doesn't love you.**_

_**You're useless. **_

_**Third-wheel.**_

_**Fangirl Bitch.**_

Yet again, the whispers began to ring out through Ino's mind, only this time they were so much more _powerful_. Each one stung like a second-degree burn, but they were being dispensed at a rate no heat source could match. Ino's own thoughts began to liquify in her head, becoming forgettable concepts that were only strung together by a thread of lucidity she was trying desperately to hold onto to.

_**Uhhh! **__This is what dad warned me about, her id is trying to assimilate my thoughts into her. I have to…keep remembering. _

Ino flinched, using her one last thread of memory to repeat her mantra over and over.

_I'm Ino Yamanaka I'm Ino Yamanaka I'm Ino Yamanaka I'm Ino Yamanaka I'm-_

_**Hey, Ino…**_

Ino tilted her head back slightly, looking down.

From the endless abyss, strands of cartoonish white formed a manifestation of Sakura. Her Inner-Sakura.

_**Don't remember inviting you in here, so can you kindly GET THE FUCK OUT?!**_

The Sakura thrust her fist up, it's blow blasting Ino with a mountains-worth of existential dread. It almost fried her brain outright, but luckily, she was able to grasp her hands together in one final seal.

"_Release!_" Ino cried desperately.

Then, in a flash, she was back in her own body. The sensations from the mind-possession were so intense that a newfound numbness was present in her limbs. She shakily made her way up to her feet, looking over for her rival.

"What happened?" Shikamaru murmured, realizing the mind possession must have failed.

Unfortunately for her, it seemed Sakura didn't have the same wake-up issues as she did. She was already charging at Ino, speed far faster than the Yamanaka was prepared to react to. Ino lashed her hands out in one last desperate attempt to try and match Sakura.

_**Slam!**_

It didn't work.

Sakura rammed her fist into her chest hard enough to punch the air out of Ino's lungs. The girl collapsed to the floor, only for Sakura to drag her back up again by her collar. As she held her in place, there was a small bit of Sakura's subconscious that cheered for blood. It wanted so desperately for her to beat Ino into a pulp, with every blow hitting her as hard as she'd hit Sakura in the academy.

_**Just a few punches, rough her up a bit-**_

Sakura's hand clenched tight with the feelings of every belittling, every humiliation and every insult Ino had hurled her way coursing through it.

_**Come on…**_

She quickly unclenched it. Instead of a brutal beatdown, Sakura moved her hands into slick, quick seals before pushing a palm into Ino's chest. Suddenly, the earth underneath the Yamanaka began to rustle before cracking underneath itself. Now, she was bare witness to the second earth release technique Sakura had learnt during her training. Chunks of stone ran up her body, sealing her in a coffin of pure rock. It was far too tight and well-shaped for Ino to have any chance of breaking free. Second passed, Sakura's gaze staying fixed purely on the coffin, before Genma realized the reality in front of him.

"Ino Yamanaka has been rendered unable to finish the battle. The winner of this fight is Sakura Haruno, who will face Kankuro Of the Desert in the final stage."

The sheer ecstasy that was coursing through Sakura's body almost made her forget to unseal Ino's rock coffin. Almost. With a clap of her hands, she sent the stones falling to the wayside. Ino stumbled down onto the floor in front of her, breath short from Sakura's punch as well as her rock-assisted burial. She quickly spread herself over the floor, deep breaths pumping through her lungs while Sakura looked down.

For a second, she considered giving her a hand, just as Ino had done for her all those years ago.

That was only for a second.

Sakura soon turned on her heel and began to march back to the balcony, while Genma marched Ino to the infirmary so she could be checked for injuries. Seeing her rival limping over the arena floor sent a twinge of guilt running up Sakura's back, but as soon as she saw Naruto, Sasuke and Kakashi waiting for her, that guilt was rendered meaningless.

"There she is." Sasuke said with a slight smile.

"**Saaakura! **_That was amazing!_" Naruto screamed, significantly more enthusiastic.

Sakura smiled, thrusting her hands out as if it was no big deal. She couldn't say anything on account of the glue tag still stuck to her mouth, so sign would have to do for now. It also meant she couldn't laugh as she noticed how worked up Naruto was. It was entirely possible he may have gotten more worked up over her fight than his own.

"I'm incredibly impressed." Kakashi said, eye reflecting exactly what he said he was feeling.

Sakura's eyes went wide as if to say "really?".

"Yep. It's a shame you'll have to get a procedure done to get the glue tag off your lips though."

Sakura's heart stopped.

"I'm kidding, go ask one of the chunin over there for a dissolving agent."

Sakura did as ordered with a noticeable spring in her step. She had just beaten Ino Yamanaka in the first round of the chunin exams. At this point in her young life, she'd never felt a sensation sweeter.

* * *

"Open your eyes and then close them again." The attendant chunin said, flashing his miniature torch in Ino's bright green eyes.

After the girl did as he ordered, he moved over to a small notepad and jotted down a few things. The medical wing of the exam arena was relatively small, but packed with various med-beds and shelves of equipment. Tenten lay unconscious in one of the beds, while the others remained empty aside from the one Ino was being checked on right now. Eventually, the man turned back to Ino with a benign gaze.

"No sign of a concussion luckily. If you've got any lingering pain, it'll probably fade with a good night's sleep."

Ino nodded.

"You've got two options now. You can go back up and watch the remaining fights or you can make your way back home." He said.

"What'd the others do?" Ino asked, partly out of curiosity but mainly because its pointless nature distracted her from the fact that she'd just been decisively bested by the same girl she'd tormented during the academy.

"Everyone aside from this girl here went home. The Inuzuka wanted to stay but had some sort of family event that kept him from doing so." The doctor replied, strangely unethical in his revelations.

Ino weighed the options for a few seconds.

"I'm going to leave."

He nodded.

"The exit is to your back."

With that, Ino launched herself up from the seat and walked through the allocated doorway. It was a long, dark stretch of land but she wasn't scared. She walked forward, not letting any thoughts get to her. She'd done the best she could, hadn't she?

Just keep walking.

Sakura was garbage, she'd just fluked it. Afterall, she knew Ino's best move while Ino didn't even know she could use earth release in the first place. The fight was totally unfair.

Just keep walking.

It wasn't like her family were expecting her to pass and that a high-level clan being defeated by a no-name was a major embarrassment.

Just keep walking?

She couldn't. Ino collapsed to the ground, tears beginning to streak down her face. She was crying. No matter how hard she tried to change that fact, she was crying and it wouldn't stop. She tried pushing herself up off the ground, she tried shutting her eyes so tight nothing could come out, and none of it worked. She couldn't stop crying and what was worse, is that she knew why.

_Was it really all for nothing?_


	40. Leaves and Branches

Choji rolled forwards, form expanded to the point where his green jacket made him resemble an emerald-colored boulder. Dosu's eye widened at the oncoming attack, melody arm whirring at the ready. As Choji rotated against the ground, he brought notes of sound rolling with him. The sound nin thrust his metal gauntlet out, clutching his hand in an attempt to try and refocus the force of wind _against _Choji instead of with him. It succeeded for a few seconds, but the Akimichi's insistent rolling meant that Dosu could not keep his motion at bay for long. Soon enough, the human boulder rolled through the shield of wind, hurtling towards Dosu at a force that was perhaps even greater than before.

Dosu acted quickly, slamming his arm down against the ground to create intrinsic vibrations within the stone. Using his sound jutsu, he converted those sound-waves into an uprooting geyser that carried him _just _over Choji's rolling form. The Akimichi boy did not squash his opponent like intended, instead colliding with the wall and deflating into his usual size.

"Keep it up Choji, you almost got him." Shikamaru clapped.

He was showing significantly more interest in this fight then he had with the previous one, but that wasn't saying much since he showed Ino and Sakura's battle as much attention as most did their fingernails.

Choji stumbled out from the wall, before setting a surprisingly determined gaze upon Dosu. He clasped his hands together in seals, before calling:

"_Expansion release: bouncer blowout!"_

Suddenly, his plump form expanded out into a sphere again before beginning to _bounce _towards Dosu. Over and over again, he slammed against the concrete like his body was made at rubber, and with a surprising speed at that. However, the sound nin did not look even the slightest bit concerned. He easily outmaneuvered the bouncing boy's path, moving so quick Choji had no chance of keeping track of him, let alone redirecting his bouncing attack towards him. Each bounce sent vibrations of sound through the air, much to the delight of Dosu's melody arm. The boy lashed his hand down, bringing with it a waterfall of pure sound-waves crashing down against the boys back.

"_**Aaaah!**_" Choji cried, as the weight of a lead balloon was thrust upon him.

The sound was stagnant and unmoving. It was a pillar of inactivity and one that kept Choji from ever re-expanding outward. Dosu clutched his palm, ordering this force to start compressing in on itself. Choji's bloated ball body began to wobble under the ever-tightening weight, before, with an explosion of soundwaves, he was sent falling to the ground in his regular form. Judging by the lost look in his eye and twitching of his body, the crowd assumed there was no way he would land cleanly…

_**SPLAT!**_

And they were right. Choji slammed against the ground hard enough to cause his still-somewhat gelatinous body to just about turn into a manhole cover for a second. He instantly bounced back to his original form, but by that point, Dosu had already started stalking his prey. His one eye gazed over Choji like he was a starving peasant and the boy was a free three-course meal. After all, Dosu liked to play with his food…

"_Boop_." He laughed, shooting out a stray soundwave that sent Choji's limp body comedically flipping through the air.

He did so again and again and again, the multiple loose rotations he was putting him through making it almost seem like Choji was about to break a bone. Whereas Dosu's eye had previously burned with the flames of battle, now it had been frozen with sadistic amusement. Soon enough though, his common sense prevailed as he realized to continue sonically juggling his foe's limp body the way he was currently would be a _bad _look all things considered. He dropped him to the ground, lurching over with melody arm at the ready. Before Choji could even start comprehending his vision in anything above abstract colors, the melody arm was slammed against his forehead protector.

"Huh?" Shikamaru exclaimed, wondering exactly why Dosu had specifically targeted Choji's _most _protected area.

The answer revealed itself with the clash of metal on metal. A loud reverberation echoed through the room, most prominent against Dosu's arm and Choji's temple. With yet another clench of his palm, Dosu converted this sound into a harsh force that burrowed into his foes head. Choji practically flew backwards, head stinging with an endless array of punches echoing directly into his skull. Dosu braced, looking set to pounce on him yet again, before Genma darted in front of the two.

"Choji Akimichi has been knocked unconscious. The winner of this fight is Dosu Kinuta, who will face Shino Aburame in the final stage." He said, flashing a stern gaze towards Dosu.

Despite his victory, the Sound ninja couldn't help but display a slight bit disappointed in his exposed features.

_Sadistic prick. _Shikamaru mentally noted, watching on from the balcony with distain.

Dosu soon walked himself back up to the balcony, with little fanfare from anyone including his remaining teammate. Choji was quickly escorted to the medical wing to the sadness of practically every ninja still watching.

"Damn it." Naruto growled to himself.

The three Team 7 members had been hoping for a collective sound knock-out but that appeared to be off the cards now. Sakura looked on with a similar sadness, before the subconscious touch of her lips sent the residual taste of glue sizzling into the top of her mouth.

"I really wish I didn't use that tag." She groaned, not appreciative of the chalky sensation that had been welded onto her mouth.

"Oh, I've got a mint I could give you if you want that?" Naruto offered, reaching into the small zipper pockets that lay on the inside breast of his hoodie.

"That'd be great, thanks!" Sakura said.

With that, Sasuke snapped to life.

"Don't take it, Sakura." He instructed.

"_**What, why?**_" Both Naruto and Sakura called out simultaneously.

Sasuke's gaze settled on the Uzumaki with a fierce glare.

"He literally just grabs a handful of mints from whatever restaurant has them and lets them fester in his hoodie for weeks. He gave me one once and it was at least forty-five percent orange fabric that had seeped in from the pocket."

"That's disgusting." Kakashi commented, while Naruto broke out into a rage.

"Come on, you had _one_ bad one and the others I gave you were fine!" Naruto yelled back.

"Maybe If I had ageusia they'd be "fine" but I don't. They were all soggy and tasted like soap because you forgot to take them out before you put the hoodie through the wash."

Sakura, who at this point had begun to look a bit revolted, turned to Naruto with a queasy grimace.

"Ya know what, the glue taste is starting to fade by itself anyway…"

"_Sasuke_ _you're a dirty liar!_" Naruto screamed, while the Uchiha struggled to hold back a laugh.

A clap of Genma's hand brought their attention back to the center of the exam hall.

"Attention everyone, the next battle of the chunin exams is about to begin!"

A brace came over the crowd yet again. With the pool of nominees shrinking every fight, the likelihood of your fight being next drastically increased. Kin looked over at Lee, Lee looked over at Sasuke, Sasuke looked over at Gaara, Gaara looked over at Neji, Neji looked over at Hinata, Hinata looked over at Shikamaru and Shikamaru looked down at his hands. A quick spin sent the two-barrel displays rolling and eventually landing on the first name.

_**Neji Hyuga. **_

The second wheel spun.

_**Hinata Hyuga. **_

If a photo had been taken of Hinata's immediate reaction, it could very well have been used as the textbook definition of shook. Seconds passed and she remained completely frozen, jagged bolts of fear running through her insides and freezing her body whole. She was a stagnant object, unshackled by the chains of the current reality no matter how hard they tried to pull her back. That was until Kurenai put her hand on her shoulder.

"Don't let yourself be intimidated Hinata. You can be incredibly capable in these situations if you focus." She instructed.

Hinata nodded, trying (and failing) to put on a brave face. Meanwhile, Neji's own expression was a deep smirk. He was relaxed, almost too relaxed as he walked forward. However, his motion was stopped as a hand grabbed his shoulder. He turned back around to see Guy staring at him with perhaps the sternest countenance he'd ever seen from the goofy man. It caught him slightly off-guard.

"Don't do anything you might regret." He instructed.

Neji shrugged the hand off with ease.

"I won't." He replied calmly.

He spoke normally and clearly, not atypical to any other time he did so.

In a way, he wasn't lying.

With a stark contrast in their posture, the two Hyuga's both made their way down to the arena floor. Neji seemed roaring to go, almost amped for the occasion. For anyone that had seen his usual reserved nature prior to the fight, it looked as if a spirit of some kind was possessing his body. Hinata on the other hand, looked positively frail. Eyes wide, face stuck in the crevasse of her jumper. It was like a towering; stable ironwood tree had been matched up against a dandelion stuck too far from its flower patch. This divide only grew deeper as Neji reached up to his headband. With a slick yet harsh pull of his hand, he discarded the wrappings and exposed his forehead to all those in an attendance.

"What the hell?" Naruto muttered, channeling the emotional aura of those around him.

A deeply entrenched green seal rested on Neji's head. It was small and insignificant, barely visible to those who looked on from the balcony yet with the way Hinata reacted to it, he may as well have inexplicably pulled out a handgun. Her shaking intensified, bones rattling with the nervousness of what was to come. Neji in the meanwhile only smiled further. This seal was far more than just a simple tattoo. It was a beacon of the bloodied history of the Hyuga clan shining brightly over all it could see.

You could almost here the thunder crackle in the background.

_The thunder…_

* * *

The rumble rattled through the walls as Neji's young, inexperienced eyes gazed out the window. Despite being indoors, the storm-brought rain still found itself pattering onto his back, seeping through the thin protection of the tin roof. In his field of view sat the regal Hyuga compound. Its foundations were solid and made out of material so fine that it was almost as if the rain was too scared to touch it in fear that it would somehow be put in an unescapable monetary debt. The compound was safe and _secure_, each room vast and spacious and each person content and protected. It seemed like a far-away dream from where Neji sat now. In truth, he didn't truly understand why him and his father couldn't live in there. There were already several rooms dedicated solely to housing foreign diplomats, surely one could be given to him and his father?

No, of course not. They were branch house. They were allocated to the same small shacks that had been lazily tucked in to the very back of the compound's walls. They were small, too small for more than one person to conceivably live in. Should Neji extend himself out fully now, he'd almost certainly end up kicking his father in the stomach. Not that the man would see it coming. He was too busy working on the fireplace, attempting to create a warmth big enough to conquer the tears of the leaking roof while also not burning the whole house down by accident. Neji couldn't help but dislike the fireplace, as it's presence not only meant the specter of draft had already began to permeate through their living quarters but the clothes, he'd spent so much time folding were now required to be roughly scattered to the back of the room in fear that they might catch fire. That's just how it was when you had no cupboards.

"Father, can we ask the elders if we could stay in there for the night? There's no one staying in the spare quarters, I checked the roster and- "Neji began to say.

Hizashi turned to him with a knowing but bitter smile.

"I already asked them. They said they'd already locked them down for flood risk."

Neji's expression immediately fell.

"Oh, alright." He said, dejected.

Soon, his fathers hand knowingly wrapped itself around his back. The residual warmth of the flickering fireplace melted into him, but its balminess was unquestionably fleeting.

"Come on, it's alright here, just the two of us. It's cozy, isn't it?" Hizashi attempted to uplift.

Neji smiled back, but it was clear that this was no more than placation. His father just sighed and moved his body back to the fireplace.

"Don't worry Neji, living like this builds character. You'll appreciate it when you're older."

That's what his father always said and at this point, Neji had stopped appreciating it as much as he had when he was younger. At age seven, his young mind had only just started to grasp the servitude he'd been born into and it wasn't reacting to it well. From what he'd began to understand, there were two houses of the Hyuga clan, the branch and the main. The main was the "true" Hyuga clan, those who managed its resources and bartered with politicians. The branch was meant to protect the Byakugan, which was what the seals on their heads intended to do. Should they die, their seals would activate and keep enemies from excavating the secret of the eyes.

At least, that was in theory. As the day's past, Neji couldn't help but become more and more convinced that the reason he and his father were in servitude was simply a way of receiving labor and protection without coughing up the money that that usually entailed. However, he quickly pushed these thoughts out of his mind. Surely it made sense, surely the next heir must be so amazing that their bondage must have been necessary to protect her, right?

* * *

"Ah, so paint diagonal stripes down here?" Hizashi asked the elder who stood next to him.

"Yes, yes, _that's right_."

Neji resisted the urge to scowl. The elders were all very similar in how they spoke. It was as if they thought the branch house was purely made up of incredibly dumb children who needed exact directions for everything they did. The man's posture was relaxed and uncaring, projecting an unearned air of superiority over the two, which was ironic since the man himself was quite fat and in his old age, barely looked taller than Neji.

It was so strange, he thought. Even though he hadn't exactly mastered his byakugan, he could estimate that one strike would be enough to cripple the old man permanently. However, for some reason this man was to be considered his direct superior. It boggled the mind, enough so that Neji didn't even feel the paint brush in his hand slipping before it was too late. It fell to the ground, sending a splatter of liquid white scattering over the deep green floorboards.

"Oops. Sorry." Neji exclaimed calmly, leaning back down to grab the brush.

When he looked back up though, a storm of fury had appeared in the old man's eyes.

_**SLAP!**_

"Ignorant brat." He grumbled, slamming the back of his hand into Neji's face.

Had the Hyuga youth been any more on-guard, he would have easily blocked the attack but due to his current predicament, the blow sent him spiraling to the ground. His face immediately stung while globs of the previously-spilled white paint found themselves knotted within his brown locks. The man looked down at him with the stench of a power-drip radiating from his very fingertips, but that didn't last long. Hizashi's paternal instincts kicked in and overruled even the strongest semblance of branch house mentality. He darted towards the elder with a speed Neji had never seen a human, hell, _anything _moves at before. Half a second more of pause, and the elder would've had his jaw split clean off his body, but even in his old age, the man retained his keen reactions. With a fearfully quick raise of his hand, he tiled his fingers into a seal. Almost instantaneously, the green ink of Hizahi's seal began to twist and contort.

"_**Aaaaah!**_"

Just like that, the man fell to the ground writhing in pain. The seal flickered with tight strands of green chakra while the ink began to extend itself over his skin like a virus corrupting stray sells. It was almost like shards of glass were being jammed directly into his brain. Heat, fear, anger, resentment, every emotion gave the pain more and more power. After only a few seconds of the seals activation, pools of tears began to well up in Hizashi's eyes, distorting their lavender hue. His brain was too preoccupied to try and hold them in.

"_Father!_" Neji screamed, attempting to crawl over to his parent.

Before he could provide even the slightest comfort, the elder stamped his hand. Neji retracted like a wounded animal, looking up at the man with a newfound fear fresh in his eye. Ironically, if he'd just viewed him this way from the start, this situation grew that much more improbable. The elder roughly adjusted his own robes, less sadistic and more completely uninterested in the branch house members now that there was no chance, they could hurt him.

"_Fucking branchies_…" He grumbled under his breath.

Perhaps he was more irritated than anything. He turned to Neji with what could be described as both a glare and a sigh, paying nearly zero attention to the man that was spasming under his command.

"You, get a mop and clean up the paint." He ordered.

Neji barely heard him, his focus laying more on his father for the moment. It was only when the Hyuga elder delivered a swift but somewhat relaxed boot to his chest that he snapped to attention.

"_Get a mop now._" The old man repeated

Neji nodded, but his body stayed stiff. A few seconds were lost to him just watching the visceral contortions of his father before he couldn't take it any longer. He dashed out of the room, snapping his eyes shut to try and keep the trauma-forced tears from falling. Even with his vision obstructed, the location of the mop was still hardwired into his brain. He rushed into the general bathroom, reaching into his pocket and clutching his daily permit. Branch house were not permitted to use the same facilities as the main house, and must have a written permit signed by a main house member to enter them. Luckily, there was no need for Neji to pull it out as the bathroom was empty for now.

He made a quick beeline for the storage room, retrieving a mop and a bucket before rushing back over to a nearby faucet and switching it on. It may have seemed like an unneeded haste for tasks so minuscule, but as Neji collapsed to his knees in front of the glass mirror, this speed was proven to be warranted.

It didn't make sense. The brutality of the elder, the pain his father was put through, the _primitive _thrashing that made it seem like he was breaking his own bones to escape said pain. He'd always understood they were treated differently, but it had never been that bad. _Never_. His small fingers raised up to his face, their adrenaline-spurred warmth cutting through the sickly cold of the unstoppable tide of tears. In the mirror, he found himself tracing over the stained green ink of the seal. Even when though wasn't activated, it still throbbed and pulsed, sending nasty images into his brain. He'd never paid it much attention. Now he couldn't take his eyes off it.

It wasn't supposed to be this way but Neji didn't know why.

* * *

Over and over the broom swept through the thin layer of dust that had coated the Hyuga halls. It wasn't much in the grand scheme of things, but it was enough to justify the elders calling Neji out to sweep it up. Strands of colorless muck flossed themselves through the bristles of the broom, entangling themselves in its grip before folding into the crevasses of the dustpan. Even as his father recovered and weeks passed since the incident, Neji couldn't help but feel a passive unease wriggle into his mind whenever he entered the compound. Even the tiniest mistake in his duties shot the image of Hizashi's animalistic pain to the front of his mind.

Eventually, his intended sweeping path lead him into what he presumed to be an empty training room. However, as he entered, he was immediately greeted with the sound of weighted hits. Palms clashing against one another, the air of battle. He turned slightly from his sweeping to find a small girl sparring with a much taller lady. The girl was young, no older than six, and he recognized her almost instantly. That was Hinata Hyuga, the heir apparent to the entire clan. He vaguely recalled that they were direct cousins but he'd never really seen her in a scenario where she wasn't being patrolled by what felt like eight thousand body-guards.

The lady she was sparring with was an older Hyuga woman, who looked to be in her mid-thirties. Her name escaped his young brain but he'd definitely seen her around before. She was extraordinarily lanky even when not compared to a partner who wasn't even four foot. Much like her looks, her movements were graceful and elegant. He quietly resumed his sweeping, trying to keep it to a minimum so as to not disturb the two. The sounds of his brush strokes melted into the pattering of the attacks, the pair of noises merging into a lazy rhythm until, with one final strike against the older woman's palm, one of them ceased.

"That's enough for today Lady Hinata. As always, you should practice your speed and tightening up your movements." She said.

Hinata nodded, before slumping down against the slight wooden steps beneath her. The lady turned toward the exit, stern gaze somehow becoming even sterner when she saw Neji. She marched over to him, brushing the hair from his forehead and exposing the seal. That same hand quickly snapped to an outstretched palm.

"Permit." She said.

Neji fearfully fumbled the broom, reaching into his jacket pocket and retrieving the small piece of paper. She snatched it out of his hand fast enough to nearly tear the page in two and analyzed it's handwriting as to make sure he hadn't forged it. After that, she promptly handed it back to him but not without giving him a stern warning first.

"Under no circumstances are you to interact with Lady Hinata unless it's absolutely necessary, understood?" She chided.

Neji nodded, which the lady seemed to dean satisfactory enough to allow her exit. From there, he resumed his sweeping pattern, dragging him and his broom around the room with dust fluttering under his delicate brushes. For a while, he attempted to act as if Hinata was invisible but the weight of her wide violet eyes staring into the back of his head was almost magnetic. Eventually, after making his way around the dojo for a little while, he looked up to meet her eyeline.

"H-Hello!" She exclaimed suddenly.

Neji was immediately caught off-guard. The gradually growing instincts of the branch house immediately told him to ignore her, or at least engage in a brief fashion, but these orders were lost to the abyss of his childlike curiosity. He smiled slightly, looking back up at her.

"Hello."

"You're my c-cousin, right?" Hinata said.

Neji nodded. Her demeanor was quiet and shy, traits he would have not previously pinned to someone of such a high status in the clan. Although he did suppose her mother had passed away just recently, so a hesitant tone was definitely understandable. However, she didn't seem to continue the conversation in anyway. This was clearly not by choice, as her nervous finger pressing and expression communicated, but just because she wasn't apparently capable. She just sat around for a few seconds before suddenly looking back up.

"W-W-Would you like to spar with me?" She asked.

He hesitated. By talking to her as much as he had, Neji had already been pushing his luck. However, he also couldn't help but be curious about the skill of the clan heir. In a roundabout way, her existence provided the reason for the branch house to exist. If he could just see what she could do, just a little bit…

It was just a light spar, what could go wrong?

* * *

"_**You broke her wrist Neji! What the hell were you thinking?!" **_Hizashi shouted, his anger potent enough to shake the branch house shack to its very roots.

In contrast, Neji sat forward and stared at the ground with a blank yet distinctly bitter gleam in his eye. She'd proven to be pathetic even by the most basic of standards. It wasn't his fault his grip had been too much for her brittle fucking bones to take. Harsh rain streaked down the window, all-too-familiarly leaking through the gaps in the tin roof.

"It's not my fault she couldn't defend herself." He replied.

"_Oh, isn't it?! _I've told you over and over again, you're a genius Neji, she's not on your level. Have some basic respect for the person you're sparring with for god's sake."

Neji looked up at him with a glare forceful enough to take the fearsome adult off his guard for just a second.

"If she's not on my level, why do I have to suffer while she lives in luxury huh? It's not right father! She can do anything she wants and I will _**always**_ be forced to clean up for her won't I?! _This is all I'll ever get to do, isn't it?!_" Neji screamed.

He tried to force his eyes wide with anger, but puddles of tears soon began to well up at their bottoms. However, even these tides of sadness couldn't extinguish the flaming fury that loomed in his glare.

"Neji." His father said, trying in vain to calm him down.

"_It's not fair! I __**don't want**__ to be a sweeper for the rest of my life, I __**don't want **__to serve those main house pigs! I don't want this…_"

His hands viciously clawed at his seal in a futile attempt to try and break his chains.

"_**Fucking thing **__on__me! It's not fair, it's not fair, it's just not fair!" _He yelled.

He looked up at Hizashi, the last of his hope fading from his eyes in real time. At the same time, there was desperation. Desperation that somehow, against everything he'd learnt across his whole life, his fathers next words would make the situation okay. With just this glance though, he realized this was a pipe dream. This was because in his father's eyes sat a faded resignation that seemed the logical endpoint of the anger that had reached a head in himself.

"Life's not always fair Neji." He said back.

Silence lingered through the cramped walls of the shack and it hit Neji harder then even the most brutal of insults could. After a few seconds of frozen motion, he lay down into his sleeping bag, thrusting the cheap itchy covers over himself.

"I hate living here." He said, barely above a whisper.

Hizashi looked back at the bundle of blankets.

"I know." He said.

* * *

It was a late-night months later that Neji found himself unable to sleep. Between the perfect temperature and the ambient crickets, it was, on-paper, a perfect night but he couldn't get himself to pass out. The covers weren't comfortable enough, he couldn't get into the right position, the pillow was too hot. All the placebic culprits were there and so, despite his complete stillness, he never found himself drifting off to sleep. This is why, when he heard his father rise up from his own sleeping bag, he began to become curious. It was far too late for him to be allowed in the main compound building, perhaps he was just going to get some water from the faucet outside?

As his father exited the room, Neji peered up through the small windows of the shack. Hizashi was heading straight for the gates. A sense of dread shivered down Neji's spine, uprooting a fear of the unknown through his stomach. Something was not right today. On his sweeping round earlier, he'd heard a group of elders angrily muttering about something. From what he could gather from anyone who was willing to talk to him, there had been an incident involving an on-the-ground Hyuga soldier guarding the Konoha border. A young group of refuges from a country called "_Kumo_" had found themselves attempting to pass through undetected, but in the resulting skirmish, the Hyuga soldier had accidentally killed a young girl. The political implications of this were lost on Neji, who simply wanted to see where his father was going so late at night.

Quiet as a mouse, Neji weaved through the darkness. Grass crunched against his feet while the cool night air brushed over his pajamas. Even with the burden of the branch house, he was a natural prodigy in every aspect of being a ninja, and that included stealth. He tailed his father with the furtiveness of a ninja twice his age, gently managing his steps so that the grass didn't crunch under them. This grass eventually turned to slick wood flooring as Neji continued to follow his father into the depths of the Hyuga clan's heart. He ducked behind corners, careful not to move too sharply and send the spotless floorboards squeaking. After around a minute of walking, Neji found his father entering a room. An awaiting light spilled forth from it, though it was quickly snuffed out when it's sliding paper door was closed behind Hizashi.

Neji's eyes tightened with the vision of the Byakugan, peering forth to make sure the coast was clear of any lingering guards or such. Upon seeing that it was, he dashed forward and slid down with his ear to the door. A jumble of voices filled his ears, however scrambled by the obstruction of the slider.

"_Hiashi will be here in a few moments, but I think we should run over what you will be instructed to do Hizashi. After the incident at the border, the Raikage is demanding a "quid pro que" so to speak in the form of a high-ranking Hyuga member's body. Due to your similarities in appearance to your brother, we will be offering you. They will be unable to study the Byakugan, as we will activate your seal. The seal will be activated at midnight tonight, in which you will die."_

Neji's heart stopped. He was paralyzed, body not moving despite his attempts to will it too. This had to be a joke or some sort of cruel prank. It had to be. In despite of reality and everything he knew, _it had to be_.

"_Will you allow me to say goodbye to my child_?" Hizash asked.

There was no fear in his voice but that only made Neji's stomach sink deeper. Silence passed, only a few seconds, but each one may as well have been years to Neji, who was still proving unable to process the events that were playing out directly into his ear. They seemed like a bad dream but the only thing dividing them from him was the inch-thick sliding door he rested on.

"_That would be pointless and only serve to complicate matters." _

That was it. Neji was about to smash into the room and start taking heads himself. He didn't care how much anyone in that room outclassed him or how a single seal from their hands could fry his braincells, the nauseating mix of fear and fury that was running through his brain was far too potent for commonsense to block. His body surged upward only for a swift hand to lay itself on his shoulder. He turned to the side and found himself looking up at the stern gaze of Hiashi Hyuga.

Neji desperately threw an attack outward, but to the head of the Hyuga clan, there was minimal difference between him attacking and him doing nothing. Hiashi moved faster than even his byakugan-enhanced gaze could hope to react to, effortlessly shutting down every major chakra point in the time it took Neji to blink. Drowsiness immediately began to overtake his body due to the chakra blockages. He tried frantically to keep the oncoming darkness out of his eyes, to somehow cling to consciousness despite the odds but he couldn't. The next few moments would always remain a blur in Neji's mind. He thrust his jelly-like arms out, trying desperately to reach out for his father, _for anything _but he could not even edge the door to see him one last time. He wanted to scream but nothing came out.

* * *

Thunder and lightning crackled through the stormy sky, illuminating and shaking the dark rain clouds who's drops soaked through the Konoha streets. Neji Hyuga, age 8, sat by a tombstone, not concerned in the least by the miniature rivers that were forming in his flowing brown hair. He was frigid, he was scared, he was alone. Not a tear came out. Instead, he just continued to stare down at the gravestone with cold dead eyes that betrayed their vibrant violet hue. His father's grave had been packed into a public graveyard for what he assumed were monetary reasons. Had it not been, the Hyuga may have packed the body into some mid-range grave site, but they had specifically picked the cheapest one they could find. His name was barely printed on the generic stone and his body wasn't even in the grave. It was purely symbolic yet he had found himself sitting next to it almost everyday since it had been installed.

Maybe it was the symbolism that drew him to it. Here was his father, a man who had dedicated his entire life to doing the bidding of the Hyuga clan and they had "buried" him amongst drug addicts and hookers. For some of his life, Neji had thought that despite the awful living conditions he'd been put through, he could consider the clan _his_ at the very least but seeing this showed this was mere delusion. To be branch house was to be a Hyuga in name only. To be branch house was to have equal status to the dirt that each main house member stomped upon each and every day.

It was another day at this exact same spot that Neji observed a flock of birds descend upon the ground. All aside from one seemed to be diseased in some way, obvious sickness running from their boney limbs to their tattered feathers. Only one seemed in any way healthy but, as Neji tossed the crust of his sandwich to the pack, he noticed something. Despite the healthy bird clearly being the fastest and strongest, the other birds realized their strength in numbers. They formed a blockade around the crust, keeping the healthy bird from reaching anything but a few crumbs.

This was the Hyuga clan. A pack of diseased birds whose arrogance and luxury had meant that they no longer considered natural talent a positive for fear of losing their spot on the throne. They would much rather self-destruct trying to pull themselves up to heaven by their own _brittle wrists _than allow even the **most talented ninja** in the world take part in their dynasty.

Neji would show them that wealth and status were no match for the talents of a genius.

Neji had to show them.

* * *

As Neji discarded his headband, he did it not with shame, but with an overwhelming ecstasy. This was what he had been waiting for all these years. The stunned overseers, the fear on Hinata's face, it was all so gratifying. He was going to pummel the Hyuga's heir into the ground, all while displaying the symbol of the same people whose backs were broken to give her a leg-up. With an almost sadistic smile on his face, Neji eagerly waited for Genma to call the match on.

Neji would show her that wealth and status were no match for the talents of a genius.

Neji had to show her.


	41. A House Divided

Neji's motion was like that of a speeding bullet, but even more foreign to the ninja of Konoha. Hinata's Byakugan snapped awake but it aided not in helping her see him. By the time she managed to comprehend a stabilized vision of her cousin, his hand slammed into her face. It wasn't necessarily a hard hit but it was undoubtedly precise. The bones and nerves of Hinata's cheek tightened and stiffened, sending jolts of numbness running up through her facial features. She looked up once more, trying to get a visual on Neji before he struck her again but this was futile. His hands smash into her stomach and sent her falling to the ground. Any attempts to steady her landing were completely thrown off by his boot cracking into the side of her skull.

Hinata screamed out in pain as she crashed down against the stone. Physically, Neji may not have been that strong and the blunt force trauma of his blows was surprisingly negligible compared to most Hyuga or even ninja in general, but it didn't really matter in the face of his raw precision. Each hit was planned and calculated. He was not simply dispensing blows into her body, he was making sure to aim for the lungs, heart, kidneys and other vitals. While obviously was not hitting these dead on, each palm strike served its own purpose. After only a few blows, Hinata already felt her breath shortening and ache coursing through her joints. With her mind still dazed, she subconsciously began to roll into a ball. It was an utterly childish attempt at defense and one Neji couldn't help but laugh at.

He simply watched her for a little bit, a display this pathetic only occurring in his most juvenile fantasies until now.

"_Come on Hinata!" _Naruto cheered from the balcony.

From what he could see of her features from her "defensive" position, Neji could see a slight flash of determination run over her. She shakily rose back up to her feet (only because he let her) and took an equally shaky battle stance. Kurenai couldn't help but let out a small hiss at this.

_This is bad. Her main strength is her widespread offense but she's too scared to use it. If she stays playing defense, he's going to easily pick her apart. _

The difference in their posture was stark to say the least. Hinata was fragile and anxious, but also displayed only the most basic of knowledge in her limited defense. Neji in the meanwhile, had completely loosened up from the direct and accurate deportment he'd been using in his attacks. The smirk on his face said everything, but he still took it upon himself to comment.

"It's impressive, you seemed to have actually gotten worse since the last time I fought you. How many years ago was that now?" He laughed.

Hinata stayed silent. If there was _only_ one thing Neji was better at than her, speech may have been it. To try and talk back to him would be a fool's game, even worse than the one she was currently playing. Using the slight surge of anger nestling into her palms, she threw out a few quick palm strikes only for Neji to easily dodge around them with a nonchalance more becoming of a low-stakes sports game. He outreached a palm quickly before clapping his fingers down in a "come on" gesture.

"Come on then, that surely isn't all you've got."

Hinata hesitantly moved forward while her strikes moving rung out with surprising strength. On the contrary to how both were physically built, it was clear her raw power far surpassed Neji but that mattered little when her hesitation kept a cap on it. Her attacks were floaty and not spaced properly, while Neji's were ultra-fast with little wasted motion. Even with her Byakugan activated, he was far too fast for her to have any chance of hitting his chakra points. His sheer speed caused them to blur together into a maze of messy blue energy that she struggled to properly pinpoint. He easily ducked around her blows as if she were moving in slow motion before rushing ahead and jamming his fingertips into Hinata's throat. A strained breath of air wheezed forth from Hinata's lungs, both her breathing and her chakra flow becoming strained in her neck.

With a burst of speed, Neji swung back and slammed his foot into her head with a punishing kick. He could've furthered his advantage by shutting off even more of her chakra points but this _hurt _more. Yet again, the Hyuga heiress found herself being _thrown _to the ground by a member of the branch house and vindication began to swell through Neji. Fourteen years of trauma was being swelling forward with every hit and there was no way he was going to let it end. The justification of his world view was just far too intoxicating. Instead of stalking her like he had before, Neji lunged down for the grounded Hinata, who barely managed to roll out of the way.

She pushed herself up to her feet but her own momentum sent her stumbling backwards somewhat while he darted to her. Gentle-fist palm strikes slammed all over her body, each one tinged with coursing pain. Adrenaline briefly surged through her, allowing her to trade blows back but just as quickly as that tree had grown, it was cut down again. Neji's buttery-smooth strikes easily weaved through her own, the obstruction of her attacks doing little to hinder him now that the distance between them was already closed. His attacks scattered across her body, each one inflicting more and more damage. Hinata seemed capable of taking them, until a palm brushed her eyes. For only a second, her vision was blocked out but that second was all Hinata needed.

She screamed out to her father to stop.

* * *

The scent of the riverbank filled Hinata's nostrils as her child-like eyes gazed upon the lake. Its fresh, clear water ran true with a mix of floating leaves and pink-spotted flower petals while the harmonic sounds of the stream drifted through the air. Cool air draped itself around her skin, coating her in a blanket of dreamy freeze that tickled even through the wrapping of her red scarf and winter clothes.

"Be careful Hinata, you don't want to fall in." Her mother called from over her shoulder.

Hinata turned back to her with a big, bright smile.

"I won't!"

The older woman laughed, covering her mouth with an elegant stretch of her fingertips. Ame Hyuga was a striking woman, who's long violet hair hung gracefully over her dark blue eyes. She was born Ame Nikko, the daughter of a high-ranking Konoha diplomat, who had met Hiashi Hyuga when he was in his late teens. From there, they'd grown to be lovers and Ame had accepted her role as the wife of the Hyuga clan head. She was undoubtably beautiful, soft voice and quiet tone harmonizing with the flowing of the river while her stunning sapphire gaze was a both times sharp and soft. This softness was a trait her daughter had readily picked up. It made sense. Hiashi, while not necessarily "easy-going", was certainly quiet so Ame assumed Hinata had picked those traits up from them both.

Over her shoulder sat a man who Hinata didn't recognize. His head was stained with a green cross that, in her limited knowledge, Hinata could only assume was crayoned on. She did however recognize that this mark meant the man was a member of the "branch house". Her father had explained the concept to her a few times but, in all honesty, she hadn't listened very closely. Her interest was piqued as Ame raised her hand up to the man with a slight smile.

"Hizashi, you can leave now." She said.

He looked back at her with a raised eyebrow.

"But Lady Ame- "

"Trust me, we'll come back to the compound soon. Neji's probably lonely cooped up in there by himself."

Hizashi showed a slight bit of hesitation, before nodding his head and walking away.

"Alright, thank you Lady Ame."

Hinata watched him leave with a swirl of confusion twirling through her pale eyes, waiting until he was out of earshot before crawling onto her mothers' lap.

"Why'd you let him go mother?"

"Hm?" Ame said back, not recognizing why exactly Hinata was saying what she was saying.

"The branch man. Father says they're all crazy cause they got that big mark on their heads."

Ame looked down at her with what may have been the sternest look Hinata had ever seen in her young life (and considering she grew up with Hiashi as a father, that was saying something).

"Your father is a very smart man, but sometimes he can also be very, _very _stupid Hinata. Those in the branch house are no different to you or me. That man I just sent away is your uncle, and his child, your cousin."

Hinata's eyes widened, blank violet hue swirling with even more confusion then it had prior.

"But if he's my uncle, how come I never see him?" Hinata asked.

Ame sighed loudly, beginning to lie back against the ground with Hinata in her arms.

"_I don't know_." She breathed quietly, leaves rustling against her back.

For a while the two lay there, letting the heat of the sun and the sounds of the tide wash over them. Then, with her dark blue eyes eclectic and filled with knowledge, Ame turned to Hinata.

"Remember Hinata, no matter what your father says, everyone and everything is deserving of respect because that respect will almost alwaysbe returned to you."

Hinata stayed silent but smiled.

She loved her mother dearly and that only grew as the years rolled on. Hinata would scarcely be seen away from her mothers' side, with the weight of the Hyuga clan heritage failing to make a dent in her happiness. As the days ticked by, Hinata found the feeling of sadness become more and more foreign until she could hardly remember what if felt like at all. Her times were spent in luxury and care, sunny mornings and calm afternoons. Even as she became older, she could vividly remember nights at the dining table, plates strown about and flecks of food trailing off her napkin. Bright lights, just her, her mother and her father.

"Oh Hinata, please be more delicate with your food." Hiashi chided, using his own fork to slap at her wrists.

"Remember Hiashi, you're not the cleanest eater yourself." Ame point out.

There had been many a day where she had found Hiashi's office floor scattered with flakes of corn, rice or whatever food he had been eating.

"I'm trying to set a good example for my daughter, Ame." Hiashi replied, unshaken by her words.

There was something about the way he said it that made Hinata laugh. She was only a child, and most likely didn't understand the context but she laughed all the same. Hiashi looked over her giggling fit bemused for a few seconds before gently smiling to himself.

"_Silly girl_." He whispered.

Dinners were always fun in Hinata's mind. It was just the three of them sitting bunched up around the table, chairs barely an inch away from each other.

Time moved so quickly back then.

* * *

"Please watch yourself Lady Hinata." Her aide murmured, gently steering the girl back onto the street path after she'd nearly tripped face first into a puddle.

"Sorry." Hinata said, though it was hard to tell if she really meant it.

She leapt forward yet again, stomping her rain boots into another puddle and sending droplets of dirty water splashing against the sidewalk. It had rained last night, but the sun had come up in the morning. Now, the world was populated by collage of small, shallow pools whose existence was only punctuated that much brighter in the rain of sunlight. Hinata bounced home from the academy in high spirits, a cool breeze blowing strands of violet hair into her face.

Her sister was being born today.

In her young mind, it was hard to know why everyone did not share her excitement. In fact, her aide seemed more gloomy than usual but Hinata only barely took notice of this. As they reached the towering gates of the compound, she could hardly wait to get in. When even the slightest gap of space appeared in the steel entrance, she took off running forward, slamming in the door and messily hooking her backpack against one of the coat hangers. However, as soon as this surge of excitement wore off, she noticed something was not quite right. The compound was dark and barely lit despite the warm sunshine that permeated outside. That same sunshine carried with it an ambient tone that trailed up your skin and warmed your heart. The compound was heavy and silent.

With the first seed of discomfort laid deep in her soul, Hinata made her way up the stairs. Much like the atmosphere of the building, her steps were soft and silent, the spring in them that had launched her all the way home withering under every stair.

"Father?" She called, making her way into the living quarters of the main house.

She received no response except for a soft sound that had been muted by the walls and distance between them. It was coming from her father's office. She trailed forward, ears hungry to gobble up more of the sound and try to get a grip of what was going on. Some days later, she wished she hadn't. As Hinata tip-toed over to the door of her father's workspace, the nature of the sound became clear. She peaked through the door and saw him on his knees, grief welding them to the ground with no hope of mobility. He was crying.

He was crying very hard.

* * *

"Hiashi, this is getting ridiculous." One of the elders spat to him.

Hiashi stood before an oval of chairs, their seats filled by several elder members of the Hyuga clan. For all his professionality, he couldn't help but show his discomfort in every inch of his posture. It was far too late at night to be talking about a topic as important as this, but it seemed the council didn't agree.

"Much like all of us, she's still reeling from the tragedy. If you are to give her a few more weeks- "

Another one of the elder's faces lit up with frustration.

"With all due respect, we have been told that very same thing for years now. It was pushing it when she was three Hiashi, now she's _six _and there's still no byakugan."

Hiashi looked up at the older men with little attempt to hide his contempt for this situation.

"What do you suppose we do, then?" He asked, the venom in his tone making the question seem as if it were almost rhetorical.

"We have polled the elder council and there is undoubtedly enough support for our position to overrule your command."

Hiashi bit down against his tongue. The elder council of the Hyuga's were one of the top hierarchies in the clan, only below him himself. Nevertheless, there were so many of them and their opinions so divided that only a few times in history had they been able to effectively take precedence over the orders of the clan head. Before he could say anything, one of the elders flashed an outstretched finger.

"You have **one **month to get her byakugan activated. Otherwise, we will forcibly instate a new heir in her place."

"And who do you suppose that would be?" He asked quickly.

"Hanabi, as a temporary elect to see how she pans out. Maybe even, _god forbid_, Neji. He may be part of the branch but most of them would walk over coals just to be a low-level main house member. He's also proving to be incredibly fluid with _his byakugan_."

Hiashi said nothing in reply. He knew what he needed to do.

It would have to be a forcible activation.

* * *

Hinata idly wandered into the training room without the slightest suspicion of what was to come. She'd been used to training ever since she was three, though it had never interested her terribly. Perhaps this was why she had unknowingly been locked into the situation she was in now. She was well aware of the pursuit to unlock the byakugan and her training had mainly been focused around that for the last few years. She grasped the cloth blindfold and wrapped it around her eyes neatly. This was a traditional practice for the Hyuga clan's byakugan training so Hinata did it willingly. However, what was not a traditional practice was the training room door being locked with a quick click.

Hiashi looked over his daughter with love for the last time.

Then he took a battle stance.

"Hinata, you have not been fulfilling the duties as expected by the heir to the Hyuga clan. At the age of six, you have still not activated your byakugan. You have disappointed me as a daughter and a heir, and for that reason, I will be forcibly activating your byakugan today."

The look of shock that had run over Hinata's face transcended just her gaze. It was clear from everything from her mouth to her posture.

"_W-What_?" She squeaked.

Her skin had grown even paler than usual.

Hiashi took a deep breath before re-affixing his steely gaze.

"You will either activate your byakugan or perish here."

Hinata raised her hands up, not in the readiness of combat, but in the attempt to halt her father. It was too late. He dashed forward and struck her across the face. The blow nearly broke it outright and sent her flying backward onto the hard wood floor. She screamed out in pain, for Hiashi to stop, but he didn't even entertain the thought. This was for her. This was all for her. His blows rained down upon the young girl as steady as it would his worst enemy. Both of them smelt the scent of war and blood that Hyuga traditions were soaked in. For Hinata, it was vile. For Hiashi, he chose to become intoxicated by it.

In all fairness, the brutality of the "forced activation" procedure was based in scientific reality. To activate ones byakugan, one had to have complete synchronization of their vision and body. It was almost like an evolutionary defense, as the power of the dojutsu would become overwhelming should one's own body not prove capable of handling the translucency and increased field of vision. In nearly every recorded activation, the thrill of combat played a heavy factor in increasing this synchronization so, unless her eyes were completely defective, it was a surefire way to activate Hinata's byakugan.

However, there was of course a reason Hiashi hadn't gone through it earlier.

Palms struck her over and over, faster than she could hope to block even without the blindfold. Each one sent her body crumpling in on itself like paper in a rainstorm. Minutes began to tick by and he began to worry. She wasn't showing any signs of activating and at this rate, he may very well beat her to death before she did so. Worst of all, she wasn't even trying to fight back.

"_Father, please-_ "She pleaded, only to be silenced with yet another collision of Hiashi's palm.

"Fight back Hinata or this will all be useless."

The way he delivered his words was cool and collected, completely devoid of even the slightest amount of emotion that Hinata could find comfort in. Somehow, he sounded like he was pleading too.

Hinata did as he requested, but her movements were shaky and fearful. Over and over, he slapped her down and she didn't know why she was getting up again. Half an hour passed. Her legs were now completely dead, meaning she could hardly stand. Her arms felt brittle, almost as if another blow from Hiashi would break them completely. Any semblance of vision had begun to fade in her mind. The only thing she saw as the abyss of the blindfold.

The smell of blood had begun to clog her nostrils. Her head echoed with nausea and vertigo. She didn't know how much more she could take, before passing out or worse. Nevertheless, she kept charging forward, eating strike after _strike _from Hiashi in hopes that this would somehow activate her eyes. She stormed ahead in hopes of this, jelly legs and all. Hiashi reared back, angling for one final attack but as he pushed it through, wind snapped from his palm. The instincts that had quite literally been beaten into Hinata over this last hour kicked in and she raised her hands up in a block. Now, the force of the hit was still enough to send her falling over, but she had blocked it. That was unmistakable.

A few seconds after, her eyes tightened and the feeling of sweet release washed over her body. She thought it may have been an illusion, a hallucination cooked up by her desperate mind to try and find some way out of this situation, but she could see her hand through her blindfold. It was real. The aching pain, the helpless blindness, all of it began to fade away she looked up at her father.

"I did it." She murmured.

Her voice was horse and quiet but it was enough to stop Hiashi for the moment. She raised a bruised hand to her blindfold and ripped it off. Underneath lay tears so plentiful that they were practically obscuring her eyes entirely. Hot streaks of sorrow ran down her cheeks like waterfalls. Nevertheless, the veins of the byakugan ran true.

"_F-f-father I did i-it_. _P-please stop._" She whispered.

It was at this moment; the haze of justification became too thin for Hiashi to fuel himself on any longer. His own daughter lay at his feet, curled up like a wounded animal. She could barely stand but her physicality was the least of her problems. Her eyes that were once so full of life were now muted with fear and hurt. In some ways, the activation of the byakugan had made sure to seal the window to her soul shut.

Hiashi couldn't bear to face her, even for a few more seconds. He turned on his heel, the sharpness of his actions causing Hinata to lurch back as if he had threatened to hit her, before walking over to the door.

"I will send for a medic." Was all he said before leaving the room.

Hinata barely heard it. She had tucked into a small ball; limbs locking over each other to try and keep the pain out. Everything hurt. She couldn't move, she _didn't want _to move. She just lay there, sobbing over and over again.

"_Please stop_."

She didn't even realize where she was anymore.

* * *

Years later, Hinata found the light had never returned to the Hyuga compound. No matter what lamps and lights she turned on, it always **felt** gray. Her hands gripped a pencil, scrawling over a piece of parchment paper. She should have been working on her homework, but she wasn't. Instead, she was doodling small designs. Skulls, bats, fire, things like that. She was just about to put the finishing touches on a small, abstract bone design when she heard her father's footsteps at the head of the room. They were faint, but ever since _that day _Hinata had been hyper-vigilant to the point of paranoia. Faint house sounds would draw her complete attention in the day and even the feeblest creak of the floorboards could snap her out of a deep sleep.

She quickly grabbed the page of drawings and scrunched it up, stuffing it in the pocket of her oversized jacket. In the years that had passed since her byakugan activated, she'd found the relaxing nature of art more and more appealing but the last time Hiashi had found her drawing, she'd had an earful.

"_**The mind of a clan heir should not be concerned with the arts**_!" she remembered him yelling as he ripped her sketchbook from her hands.

So as Hiashi peeped in through the door, all he found was his daughter mulling over her academy-textbook.

"Hinata, it's time for dinner." He said.

She looked back at him with a nod, hopping up from her desk and following along to their dining room. They sat at opposite ends of the table now. Hinata sometimes found herself wishing Hanabi could join them, but this was no more than a pipe-dream. Hanabi had been put in the care of the clans elders a few weeks after Hinata's own activation. Hiashi had said that it was a forced decision that was out of his hands, but she knew he was lying. He'd handed her sister over willingly in an attempt to ensure the girl was a" perfect heir". In theory, this should have pushed Hinata to train harder via the fear of losing her heiress position but it had not happened. She could care less if she lost it, really.

Now that she was twelve years old, the statistical analysis of the "bad vs good" that came with the heiress position was tilting in the formers favor. When she walked through the halls of the clan building, she couldn't help but notice the scorn in every gaze that was thrown her way. She didn't have it in herself to push back either. Where here tone had once been soft, it was now meek. Where she had once been quiet, she was now silent. Not a single member of the Hyuga thought she was capable of leading a clan and they may have been right. Her voice was now worthless and invisible just like everything else she did.

She raised her chopsticks delicately to one of the many steamers that lay over the table cloth and used them to pick up one of the dumplings that sat in them. However, as she brought it over to her plate, the grease of the dumpling began to cause friction within her chopsticks. It sunk from her grip, falling onto the table with a loud _plop!_ Hinata winced as dumpling juice stained the table cloth.

"_Oh, for heaven's sake Hinata!_" Hiashi growled, his anger only growing more pronounced as Hinata instinctively grabbed the dumpling and placed it back onto her plate.

"I'm sorry father." She quickly said, but it was far from enough to satiate him.

"You are far too old to be dropping food like that Hinata! If you are to inherit the clan, the _least _I'd expect is some table manners." He chided.

A brief surge of anger flared up from Hinata's gut but she lacked the will to act upon it. Instead of spitting back that she most likely wasn't going to inherit the clan anyway, she, as always, groveled.

"I'm sorry father." She said.

Hiashi didn't respond. His interactions with her had become rarer since the day she awakened her byakugan. She didn't know if it was because he couldn't face her or because he no longer saw her as his daughter. Whenever he did speak to her, it was always to chide her for being "childish" or something to that effect. The burden of the heirship had done good in stripping away every single thing Hinata enjoyed and replacing it with the robotic functions that were expected of a clan leader. No one truly saw Hinata Hyuga anymore. The people at school hardly noticed her in spite of her status and the clan members at home did the same. The walls of the Hyuga compound had swiftly transformed from her safe haven to an inescapable prison that she would somehow be expected to become the warden of in the future.

"Hinata…"

Hiashi's voice brought her attention up from the table. His gaze was looking down at the ground, and not at her.

"You know I'm doing all this your benefit?" He asked.

It sounded guilty. Hinata still nodded along as she always did.

* * *

It was a day as normal as any other when Hinata noticed something. She had just exited the academy grounds with her aide by her side, when she observed a few children from her class having a scuffle at a nearby building. There was no physical violence on display, but, with how ferocious the screaming seemed to be, there may as well have been. She turned to her escort with wide eyes.

"W-w-wait here for a second p-please." She said, before walking slightly closer to the group of people so as to hear them better.

She was still far away, too far away for any of them to notice her. She recognized every child there. Naruto, Ino, Shikamaru and Choji.

"_Naruto you little shit, get the fuck out of there!_" Ino screamed, stomping her foot against the path.

Naruto only smiled back. Hinata had had a crush on him for nearly their entire stay in the academy, but he hardly noticed her. One may have questioned how sheltered Hinata Hyuga came to this romantic conclusion, but the answer lay in incidents just like this one. The Uzumaki boy stood with his back to a wall he had clearly graffitied. His jacket was rolled down to the waste, paint streaks weaving within the material of his black t-shirt. The bucket and brush lay in either one of his hands.

"This is actually a crime; I can grass you into the nearest chunin and get your ass shipped off to **jail**!" Ino screamed.

"Bullshit Ino, this is called "street art" and it's actually _very_ creative." Naruto said back.

"Painting a micro-penis on the wall and labeling it "_The Fourth Hokage's dick_" is not street art!" Ino yelled back.

"I like it Naruto, it's very impressionist." Shikamaru joked, clearly just interested in egging the boy.

"Me too. You got really good detail on the balls." Choji added, though his compliment simply came out because he was too nice to tell Naruto off.

"_Shut up you dummies!_" Ino screeched before turning toward Naruto and lurching forward. "Hey, give me that- "

"Stand back bitch!" Naruto yelled, thrusting out his brush and sending paint droplets flying forward at Ino.

The girl jumped back as if those droplets were bullets.

"You want me to cover it up? How about this-"

Naruto threw his brush to the floor, before putting all his power into the bucket-carrying arm. From his few test swings, it became immediately apparent to all watching what he was about to do. Shikamaru's eyes widened and his smile became even deeper.

"Do it Naruto!" He exclaimed, the hints of a laugh bubbling forward from his throat.

"Naruto, don't- "Ino tried to dissuade him, but it was too late.

The bucket flew into the air, smashing against the wall and sending a tide of gold paint scattering over the area. Ino shrieked and leapt out of the way while Naruto (and the others to a lesser extent exploded with laughter). He turned to the Yamanaka girl; humor still stuck to his tongue.

"Okay, I gotta go but you owe me a new paint bucket."

She turned to him with pure rage coursing through every square inch of her features.

"_**Naruto you shithead- "**__She_ screamed.

He dashed down the street, laughter and sunny smiles permeating his features all the way. Hinata couldn't help but smile as she watched him. A part of her told her she loved him for him, but that second-hand rush was what she was truly attracted to. The freedom, the lack of care for what everyone thought about him. She so desperately wanted that.

* * *

Hinata couldn't help but stagger as she hit the ground. Neji's blow had blocked her vision for a moment, but that was all it took for the trauma of her activation to weave its way into the front of her mind. Her yelp was so loud and distracting that even Neji was caught off-guard by it. However, as he noticed it was just an admission of pain, any tension that had crawled into his form faded. He pounced on Hinatas grounded form, using his forceful palm strikes to silence any attempt for her to get up. By the time she managed to push herself up while successfully blocking his strikes, he just swept her back down to the ground with his leg.

Kakashi looked over the boy with an analytical eye.

_His form is flawless, so is his precision. Even if she somehow swings the momentum back in her favor, his control of his body is far too exact for her to break through unless-_

His analysis was true. Neji was too quick and too precise. Maybe it was the byakugan, maybe it was just his genetics, but it looked as if he was controlling his form and body with an amount of synchronization that shouldn't have been possible for any human. Legs, arms, head, everything moved in perfect tandem. Hinata stood up to her feet, trying hesitantly to return his blows but it was no use. Neji perfectly positioned his body so that every hit she managed to land was far away from any important chakra point, while also using his posture to lead her along into his counter-attacks. It was like there was a number of invisible threads connecting Hinata to Neji, as every attack she threw sent her stumbling into his own.

_**BAM!**_

Harder than any attack prior to this point, Neji ducked her punch and _rammed _his palm into her chin. The force was so harsh that it nearly sent her vertically upwards before she hit the ground with a pain that was becoming all too familiar.

"This isn't good." Shino muttered.

Like anyone with even a basic understanding of the byakugan, he could tell that Hinata most likely couldn't take many more hits before her currently-shutdown chakra points became a major problem. This would have been alleviated had she actually managed to trade blows instead of being used as a punching bag, but as of now, it was looking as if the match was sealed. Neji realized this too. As he watched Hinata frustratedly raise herself to her knees, he reached his foot out and began to brush her head down with light stomps as if she were a doormat. It barely hurt physically, but when you accounted for mental warfare, this was Neji's greatest move yet. Hinata surged to her feet in anger, throwing a flurry of palms at him while the boy simply backed away with a smile on his face.

Hinata rushed forward, only for her attack to be quickly ducked under. Neji's palms slammed into her stomach, shutting off a few lesser chakra points before sending her to the ground with a spinning back-hand.

"Well, I will say, I'm genuinely surprised that you haven't quit yet. Your stubbornness is nothing if not unexpected." He laughed yet again.

There was no doubt he was basking in the feeling of embarrassing a main house member in this way. Hinata tried to stay quiet like she always did.

"It doesn't make it any less embarrassing however. I will be making sure to package a gift for Lady Hanabi as soon as I get home, as I'm sure her coronation to new clan heir will necessitate one."

Hinata bit down on her tongue.

_Just stay quiet_.

"She might even be able to sleep in the main living quarters again. Wouldn't that be something?" He laughed.

"_**Shut up.**_" Hinata finally said.

It was bitter and angry yet still no louder than how she regularly talked. With aching legs and depleting chakra, she stood up to her feet. Her eyes were slanted with an anger no one in the room had seen from her before. Not Kurenai, not Shino and certainly not Neji, who, even if it was subtly, took a stance that was significantly more defensive than his prior one. The scowl that permeated Hinata's usual sweet features was so foreign that it barely even looked like her face anymore.

"Punch me around all you want, knock me out and break my bones. I'm never going to be good enough to justify everything that happened to you and I'm never going to be good enough for them either. I never asked to be born to the clan head, I never asked for everyone to judge me, _I never asked to be locked up like I'm made of glass-_ "

The anger that was coursing through her features had been built up for years and, even with the obvious discrepancies in skill, Neji began to worry about how much that might be able boost her.

"You can hate me all you want but _it's never going to change anything_! I think you know that too! I _hate_ the main house but just for the record…"

She bit her lip, eyes shutting from stress. Maybe she didn't mean what she was about to say.

She said it anyway.

"**I'm starting to hate you too.**"

The pure distain in her eyes was, in all reality, not even partially directed at Neji, but no matter the target, that's what was staring him in the face right now. He couldn't help but direct a little bit back.

"Where on earth is this sudden drive coming from, hm?! I feel like it could've been more useful at any other point in your life but apparently, this "will of fire" is only lit when you have the chance to beat the shit out of a branch house member." He spat.

Hinata shook her head, as if trying to physically throw of any insult Neji was trying to stick to her.

"_I'm tired of people like you looking down on me! _I'm tired of never being good enough for anyone! My- "

Her voice trailed off at the end, becoming soft again. Her violet hued gaze briefly flashed up to the stands, where she saw Naruto.

_My name is-_

_My name is-_

_My name is- _

She returned her regard to Neji, a newly found confidence beaming through them

"My name is Hinata Hyuga and I'm… _**I'm going to make the whole Hyuga clan stop disrespecting me and start treating me like I'm somebody!**_"

Hinata charged forward, moving like a woman possessed with rejuvenated bursts of speed. Neji simply braced.

"_Yeah_! Get him Hina-wait…" Naruto initially cheered, only to cut himself of as he realized what Hinata had just said.

That was his line.

Blue charka swirled into Neji's palms, forming into a defensive blue dome. By the time he'd realized what he'd done, it was too late. Hinata spiraled forward with the same rotation, only hers was moving offensively instead of defensively. The two helixes of chakra collided with each other, sparking and crackling before-

_**FWOOSH!**_

Neji's rotation completely shattered. He was sent spinning off-balance, and even with his own expert body control, he couldn't recover in time to safe himself from Hinata's oncoming assault. Her hands cracked into his chest, hitting him _far _harder than he had done to her. Her strikes continually connected, climaxing with an attempted blow to his face that would have hit so hard, it wouldn't be amiss to think it could have literally knocked his eye out on connection. Neji only just managed to parry it in time, but the fear of his opponent was now clear in his eyes.

"Kick his ass!" Naruto yelled.

"Knock his head off Hinata!" Sakura added.

"Oh, he's fucked." Shikamaru commented.

None of the comments phased the two fighters on the ground, but Rock Lee heard each and everyone. With a deep breath, he stood up against the balconies railing and screamed out:

"_**You can win Neji, I believe in you!"**_

Naruto whipped over to him with a glare.

"Fuck off Bushy Brow, your boys a total _dickhead_."

Lee turned back to him with a sternness that effectively defanged any distain Naruto's glance had contained.

"I will not disparage my teammates, no matter how much you can say they deserve it. To do otherwise would extinguish the flame of youth that connects us all." He replied.

It was a strangely serious statement, especially coming from a boy who looked as ridiculous as he did. Naruto practically wilted under the scrutiny and quickly returned to cheering Hinata on.

Speaking of which, the two clashed, but the momentum was now squarely in Hinata's favor. It may have been a boost of pure adrenaline but her raw power was now squarely trumping Neji's precision. Only half, hell, maybe only a quarter of her attacks were landing, less of those flush, but each one was strong enough to send him staggering backwards even blocked. For all intents and purposes, Hinata was a wrecking ball, and Neji's early fight antics had done well to push her backward. This burst of fury was just the equal and opposite reaction. He quickly tried to slink multiple hits through her iron-like swings. Each was either blocked or shrugged off as if he'd hit her with a simple flick of his finger.

_This is bad! He's faster and more precise but she's far stronger. His rotation is far too small and controlled to stand up to hers. He wasted his early advantage, not even neutralizing her mobility with her chakra points. _Guy thought from the balcony.

As he ran through the statistics of the match-up in his head, his anger began to swell to the point he began clenching his fists down to the knuckles.

_What kind of student have I trained? One so lacking in his youth that he'd become this arrogant…I guess it's my fault for not straightening him out more! _

On the other end of the teacher spectrum, Kurenai could barely sustain her stoic persona.

_Go get him Hinata!_

The Hyuga girl darted from one place in the arena to the next with blistering speed. Maybe it was because he'd gotten too used to her sluggish pacing at the beginning of the fight, maybe it was because she really was that quick when she tried, but Neji was starting to have trouble tracking her movements. That was a problem. Without a solid speed advantage, all he had was technique, and when Hinata was bulldozing through any tactics he was trying to use, that was worth nothing in this particular match up. She threw a punch at Neji's face, only for the boy to weave sideways out of the way. With her arm outstretched, he shoulders bashed her back somewhat, punishing this mistake with two quick strikes to her arm.

Hinata could feel the points of chakra tighten to the edge of numbness but she didn't care. With the mixture of pent-up aggression, rage and rapidly-rising adrenaline that was pumping through her every single solitary vein at this moment, Neji could've dropped the moon on her and she'd still shrug it off like it was nothing. She rammed her palms into his blocking hands, power sending him stumbling before she extended a leg out and caught the back of his heel. Neji's balance was thrown completely off, giving her the opening, she needed to pounce.

"Look left!" Hinata cried.

She threw one palm up, wind crackling around it from force. He raised his hands to block, only to find that the strike simply wasn't there.

_A feint?! _He mentally exclaimed.

"_Oh, you're stupid!_" She hissed.

_**BAM!**_

Her right palm smashed into his face, but when I say _smashed _into his face, I don't mean just _smashed _into his face. The sound that came from the blow was hard enough that it sounded a lot like stone cracking. As Neji limply spiraled to the ground, Genma was half-ready to call it right there. The branch house boy collapsed, body flying a good few feet away from Hinata and bouncing along the ground. When he gathered the slightest bit of his bearings back, his first thought was that was something had probably broken.

"Is he out?!" Naruto couldn't help but yell.

It was the question on everyone's minds. Most ninja did not take a strike like the one Neji had taken and get up in the same hour they'd been hit…

… but Neji Hyuga was not most ninja. In fact, he'd been told his entire life that he was good-for-nothing trash who rankled thoroughly below _most ninja_. There was nowhere to go but up and that's exactly where his eyes looked. That stunned, nearly incapacitated stare looked up to see Hinata looming over him.

But in a way they didn't.

Hinata was indeed standing above him, but the combination of fear and blunt-force trauma made Neji see something very different. Staring back at him now was Hiashi Hyuga, the night he'd overheard the plan of his father's death. For half-a-second, the trauma proved too much and Neji froze, but then his instincts kicked in.

_Move._

_Move_

_**Move!**_

Before Hinata could even realize he'd awoken, he spun along the ground with strands of chakra gathering around his hands. That chakra dome was quickly redirected against the ground, the sudden contact shooting it up like a jet of pure force.

"_Gentle Fist Art: Rotation Geyser!" _Neji called, as the spike of rotational chakra connected flush with Hinata's chin.

"_**Ah!**_" The girl cried, the surprise hit sending her rolling backward along the ground.

Now Neji had space. He quickly leapt back up to his feet and took a stance. The all-seeing byakugan pulsated through his head, as the backdrop to this attack became pure black. In his mind's eye, green symbols began to glow over the floor, linking together in a circle of trigrams. The ultimate art of the gentle fist, being used by a branch house to topple the main house heir. If he'd been any less focused, he would have laughed at the irony. As Hinata recovered, he lunged forward, using the green spirals to lay out his attack.

"_Gentle Fist Art: Trigram Matrix 32-Palm!" _He yelled.

Hinata thrust out her palm in an attempt to block, but this just played into Neji's attack. His attacks were hyper-quick but deadly in their precision. He lay four of them upon her arm like bee-stings, completely dismantling any autonomy in the limb and sent Hinata stumbling back with a newfound pillar of numbness attached to her body. That was the winning trick of the byakugan. With the stacking of chakra blockages, the body began to cramp up under itself and become completely numb for the moment.

Neji darted forward, trails of pure wind straying forth from his hands. Hinata wasn't just going to roll over though. She clenched her other hand into a fist and quickly _punched _Neji in the head. Her fist collided in with his curse mark, knuckles rubbing into the skin as she tried to nestle the force of the attack in.

Neji didn't budge.

If anything, this only empowered him. His eyes raised up to Hinata with a fury and desperation she'd _never _seen before in another person. Before she could even blink, another four strikes were laid onto her other arm, rendering that one numb too.

She kicked at him but it too was caught and stung with an array of strikes. Before she could even think to use the second one, he was on that too. His form spun around with speed, dropping her leg suddenly to send her off balance before peppering the other one with the trigram-boosted strikes. Hinata slumped down onto her knees, putting her in perfect position for-

_**CRACK!**_

Before Neji could deliver the last of his trigram matrix, Hinata lurched up and _smashed her head against his. _With the force of the blow quite literally echoing through his skull, Neji stepped back to try and regain his balance only for Hinata to follow. She used the last of the motion she had to leap up and pin him in place.

_**CRACK!**_

_**CRACK**_

_**CRACK!**_

Her head continually slammed into his, brutality bouncing from every blow. There was nothing driving the shots at this point. They were as self-destructive as an attack could get, but Hinata chose to go through with them anyway.

It couldn't last.

Neji threw her down to the ground with anger seeping from every inch of his being. Before Hinata could even turn to face him, he slapped her in the face hard enough to send beads of sweat flying ten feet away from them. From there, Hinata had no resistance to the assault that was being dropped onto her. Had it maybe not been for the headbutts, he would've settled with immobilization but now Neji was going for something far bigger. His palms slammed into Hinata, beating her over and over again. At the tenth strike, he drew blood but that wasn't enough to stop him. Instead, it energized him. His strikes only became harder and fiercer, an unmistakable rage permeating through every solitary one. At this point, it was not just fueled by his hate for Hinata. It was fueled by his hate for the entire Hyuga clan.

Hinata's mind had already begun to stray by the time the rain of hits was dispersed but this sealed it. As the feelings of powerlessness drifted back into her mind, she couldn't help but whimper out…

"_F-father, I did it. P-p-p-please stop._" She whispered.

Another slap from Neji knocked her out cold.

Not even with this did the assault cease however. Neji looked just about ready to kill and he was going to do it too. That was, until Genma realized it. The jonin dashed over to the pair, grabbing the boy by the stomach and forcibly dragging him away from Hinata's body. So ensnared was he in his vengeance, that he didn't even stop swinging until Genma had gone over to check on his cousin. At that point, there was five meters of separation between them.

For just a second, a deep look of shame could be seen on Neji's face but he quickly buried it under indifference. Genma, in the meanwhile, failed to get any sort of response from Hinata and raised his hand up to some of the other ninja who were on duty right now.

"Can we get a medic here please!" He called before slowly standing up to face the crowd.

Without further a due, he stood up and made the arbitrary announcements.

"Hinata Hyuga has been knocked unconscious. The winner of this fight is Neji Hyuga, who will face Naruto Uzumaki in the final stage."

Kakashi looked over towards his student, hoping he could stop the boy before he began running his mouth but it was too late. Naruto was already looking about ready to spill over the railing and start fighting Neji right then.

"Oh, I'm facing this fucking guy?!" He yelled, partially towards Genma but mostly towards Neji.

"Unfortunately, yes!" Neji screamed back.

Even with all that had happened, his hatred for Naruto overruled any fatigue that may have been affecting him.

"Well, how 'bout you give him an hour to rest up and we can do it right here, right now?!" The Uzumaki screamed, with his eyes unmovingly focused on his foe.

Neji shrugged with an obviously faked nonchalance.

"That is absolutely fine with me. I've beat one failure half to death today, what's another on the pile?"

"There will be no additional chunin exam fights taking place today." Genma sternly said, but this did nothing to halt the trash-talk.

"I'm going to drop your droopy-eyed ass in less than a minute, _just you fucking wait!_" Naruto literally spat.

"No, no, no- "Neji laughed forcibly.

"_Yes, yes, yes- " _

"I will drop you quicker then I dropped her, because I guarantee you'll have half the technique and a tenth of the guts."

"When I'm done with you, you'll need to get another five fucking tattoos to cover up the dents in your face!" Naruto squawked.

This seemed to visibly enrage Neji enough that he ceased his trash talk and seemed stomped up the stairs. However, he was not stupid enough to try and start a physical brawl with a person who had a top-rank jonin standing behind them. Instead, he stomped off into a different room, hoping to get some water after the taxing battle. Naruto on the other hand, quickly turned his view back to Hinata, who was being escorted to the med-ward. He grumbled something to himself.

Sasuke looked at him with confusion. Even when she was gone, his mood didn't seem to improve in the slightest. His bother could've stemmed from the verbal altercation with Neji, but he'd seen him get berated far more harshly and not be the slightest bit phased so he doubted that was it. If it was Hinata, it was strange to see him go from not even knowing her name to her status bothering him. What had changed…

A quick cough brought everyone (except Naruto's) attention to the center of the ring. Genma raised his hand up with an authoritative inflection and announced to the group:

"Attention! The final three rounds of the first stage are going to begin shortly, please stand at the ready!'


End file.
